Teeny update.

Well, hi blog. It certainly has been a long time since I posted last, however this will definitely be a short one. I'm needing to change my blog title (not in school anymore!), redesign it and talk about my new little world up here in Oklahoma. I've been at the jobby for 2.5 months and I'm still enjoying it, so that's great! :) I've got a sweet little apartment for Mabel and me. I'm excited for OSU football season. Jeff and I are fantastic. I'm LOVING the extra time with the fam. Etc.

I'll get on here and spend a little more loving time, including a facelift for the old design/pics. I've got LOTS to show you - including some design work I've done for the BOK Center. Cough, cough, I designed a back cover ad for Billboard magazine, cough.

Peace.

Job!

Where I landed a job doing interactive + online marketing - so excited!!! I'll be moving to Tulsa after graduation and starting the job after Kelly's wedding. I'm thrilled for the next chapter to begin!

However, I'll definitely miss ATX...this city has a big chunk of my heart and I'll look forward to many visits and weekend getaways. More to come later.

On other news, I finished my portfolio Thursday, had critique Friday and am officially done with my graduate school work. So, now I'm a Master. Yes. Master Grober. Graduation is this coming Saturday - the whole family is coming down, so I'm ready to celebrate the finale of my college career. My website will be updated soon with my new work - I'm really proud of my portfolio - like, really proud. :)

And I've been sleeping a TON lately! I'm completely loving it! Now, all I need is a 4 hour long massage and I'll be set. Love you all!

Momma.

Happy mother's day to a wonderful woman who has really put up with me.



First, I was 2 weeks late being born - due on New Year's. I guess I liked it all snuggly in there. Then, I shoved random things up my nose and had to go to the doctor to get them removed. Then I pouted like no one's business, with home videos to prove it. My bottom lip was basically dragging the ground. Sigh. Then I went through my JNCO/chains/thrift store shirt/silver Dr. Marten phase. That was interesting. I crowd surfed at a concert + my mom got upset. I rebelled, I got into trouble + I'm sure I helped put a few grey hairs on my folk's heads.

So, thank you momma - you let me figure things out for myself + you encouraged my creativity all through my life. Whether that meant pink and/or purple hair or silver sequins on my mustard yellow backpack straps, I appreciate it. You're a wonderful woman + I hope to someday learn how to choose my battles as well as you did. I look up to you so much + I'm so glad you raised me the way you did. I love you so much, you are the world to me. Happy momma's day - iloveyoumommy.

Update.

No, I don't have a job.
Yes, I'm looking.
I graduate in 16 days!!!
My critique is going to be GREAT!
I'm enjoying my final days as a college kid.
I wish I had saved money to travel after I graduate, especially with this economy crap.
I'm really proud + happy with my campaigns.
I've been a little stressed, so my cuticles are destroyed.
My dog is in Oklahoma with Jeff + I miss her. I miss Jeff too.
I've started writing my 9 + 4s differently.
I'm starting to be OK with the fact of taking a little break after graduation. (21 years of school will do that.)
I started Twittering. My thoughts? Eh.
Today was my final class of my college career.
I'm tired.

Time to get back to work on a Wolf Chili campaign. Love you, miss you.

Mmm.

The next step in getting a job...



Nice to meat you.

A poster.

There's a conference this Friday at UT all about the future of advertising and what exactly that entails (or what we think it entails.) It's called AdWakening and it has some big names coming to speak. Greg Andersen is the managing director from BBH NYC, Liz Ross is an agency CEO in-waiting from Chicago, and Bob Garfield is a columnist for Advertising Age and a co-host for NPR's "On the Media." The list goes on and on. So, needless to say, this conference is a pretty big deal!

I'm on the creative team for this and was in charge with a partner to come up with a poster design. Here she is. I'm happy with it! And if you're around Austin this Friday, come on over to AdWakening - it'll be quite an interesting day!

TV Excellence.

So, in case you missed it, tonight was the premier of The Cougar on TV Land. Yes. An older woman in a sea of twenty-something boys...I mean, "men." Take a look below to read some of the most memorable quotes from tonight's episode. And yes, I'm a little ashamed I watched this.

"Ladies, feast your eyes on Stacey, the cougar!"
"This is actually my first cougar experience."
"You look way too old to be a cougar. Whoa, whoa, whoa, way to young to be a cougar."
"I'm a pool boy, but at the end of this I want to be your pool man."
"Hi, I'm Brad aka 'The Bear.' See? Cougars and bears getting along great?"
"Excuse me. Are you the cougar I'm looking for?"
"I wore as much color as possible so I can stand out in this jungle."
"Even though she is a cougar, she has a kitten side to her."
"I'm after some intimate knowledge of the cougar."
"I feel like eve in a garden of forbidden fruit."
"I am the first guy to see the cougar den."

And my personal favorite...
"You're under arrest. You stole my heart and you have the right to remain delicious."

And another.

This one's for Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears. My favorite song of theirs? Sugarfoot. Go listen and enjoy.

Heartless.

Here's a little watercolor thing I did yesterday for the Heartless Bastards, one of the bands I helped manage at C3. This is for my secret thing - I'll hopefully have news soon! :)

Excite.

Exciting things are happening this week. Keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you in on my secrets sometime soon.

Oh, and 41 days until graduation. Partyyy!

Teeth.

I always seem to get infatuated with clever business card design - I found this via Trend Insights and fell in love. Very clever work...I would probably call this guy to fix my teeth - or I'd call the design agency to give them a round of applause. I love it.

Hmm.

Scary. Exciting. At the same time.

Proud momma.

Today could have been a disaster.

Mabel, my sweet, sweet Westie, is crate-trained and stays in her little "apartment" while I'm off at work or school. Well, today I decided to test her ability to be a good girl and let her stay in my room...outside her crate. So, before I left for work I gave her a peanut butter-filled Kong toy (by the way, the best invention EVER), put her in her crate without locking the door and left my apartment with crossed fingers.

I came home a few hours later with lots of apprehension and anxiety that my room would be reminiscent of Hurricane Ike leftovers - torn-down window blinds, accidents on the floor, chewed up bedding, etc, etc, etc.

I slowly opened my bedroom door to be greeted by my little buddy. I said hello and paced around searching for something ripped, chewed, peed-on, destroyed, but to my surprise Mabel was the perfect little roommate! I am so proud of her - I've called her grandparents (mom and dad) to tell them the great news. She got a ton of treats, lots of pets and is now chewing on a big 'ol ceegar (aka cigar aka rawhide). I'm so proud of my little lady! Maybe this is a new step in trust for us. At least I'm not stepping IN something...




Yay, Mabel!

Handiwork.

I've decided to add some spice to my normal, usually-daunting midterms, which let me add that I haven't had an actual midterm paper or test in the longest time...it's odd that I'm ending my college career with one. Anyway, for my artist and venue management class (mmm...I love it) I've been given three questions to answer. The final question is about different types of marketing - I've written my paper and designed it well (with Helvetica typefaces), but it needed a little something extra.



I've been getting really interested in hand-drawn type, thanks to my art directors seminar. I guess that when you see a product packaging with hand-drawn type, you feel a little closer to that product. Like that product is a little more human - a bit more handled and warm. I've also been immersing myself with Hand Job, a book on type design. (Hint, friends and family - this would make an excellent Christmas pressie!) I've even begun to design my graduation announcements, which I'm pretty sure will be sent to about 5 people. But I'm going to hand-draw the whole thing, scan it in and hopefully screenprint em. We'll see how that goes later on.



Also, for my art directors seminar we were given a title and asked to draw or comp our own interpretation of what that would look like as a font. Some folks were given "Lovey Dovey," "Critter Hill," and "Pack It In." My font was named "Mania Two." Here's what I came up with...



I basically took inspiration from a font I had downloaded and resketched it with my calligraphy pen and ink, being sure to add my own taste and flair to the project. I made the font much more active and wired. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - it makes me feel pretty manic, so I guess it's doing its job. I'm wanting to branch off and make a few more fonts, just for fun. Anyone have a weird title for me to work on? I'll draw it up and post it on the blog when I finish - OK, go.

Zoom!

In a recent conversation with one of my best friends from college, Danielle and I were discussing how fast the past two years have gone. And I say,

"Time has flown by like a hawk. Like a hawk with a jetpack."

Spring.

When the word spring comes to mind, what pops into your head? Baby birds? Allergies? Tornadoes? Tulips? Basketball?



Yes. And I'll add my favorite word to the mix: break. It's true, the final spring break of my life is now upon me. In 4 short days I'll be free of papers, ads, lab proctoring, studying, reading, and so on. (But I'll be honest - I have a lot of campaigns to work on since my midterm review for P3 is the Friday after SB09. Bummer.)

What am I doing for the big break? Ah, lots of fun stuff: I'll be attending a wedding shower for my sister thrown by some Muskogee family friends. I'm going to a stock-their-bar party for my sister and her fiance, Carl, thrown by her best friends. I'm throwing my sister her personal shower and bachelorette party in Tulsa with all her best friends coming. I'm also meeting with the marketing director for the new BOK Center in Tulsa, the director of the Spirit Bank Event Center in Tulsa, and hopefully a few folks in the Oklahoma City area.

I'll be busy, but at least I'll have a little break before the last few weeks of my time in college...ever. So, happy spring break 2009, everyone! Even if you don't get a break, take some time out of your workweek to enjoy the beautiful weather, the pretty flowers or the plethora of basketball on tv. And one final note, GO POKES!

WEBSITE!!!

Hey blog friends! Today is a great day. Not only is it gorgeous outside down here in Austin, TX, but I've finally launched my website - www.emilygrober.com. Celebrate!!!

On it you'll find my advertising work, wedding designs and concert admats for all to see! As most of you know I'm about to graduate from the University of Texas in eleven short weeks (yeow!), so I'm on the job hunt with a pretty sharp sword. If you know of anyone hiring in the advertising, marketing, concert promotions, or design areas, feel completely free to forward my site. I'd really appreciate it!!!

Thanks for all the love and support, and if you're one of my brides on the site, thank you for trusting me to help add some design to your big day! Let me know when you get pregnant and need baby announcements! :)

Thanks to Cal Findeiss for programming the site - it's wonderful and I love it like I love cake!
Please let me know if you're having trouble with the site and I'll fix it up.

Yay, and happy Tuesday!!!

www.emilygrober.com

Older?

I guess you could say I had some interesting realizations recently.

I had an extremely heavy backpack. Inside was my MacBook Pro, it's powercord, mouse, two 200+ page books, my calendar and a spiral notebook. Not to mention the 80 pens and markers I have rattling around in there. This backpack was carted all over campus, giving my shoulders a tough day. The weight of this thing was becoming so daunting and painful I just had to sit, so I found myself on some stairs in front of a dinosaur museum on campus and got frustrated. I realized that I was just tired of school. Tired of my heavy backpack. Tired of projects taking up my evenings and weekends. Tired of it.

And yes, I've gotten the "Oh, no, you'll miss school so much when you leave," and yes, I think I would have absolutely missed school...if I had been done after only 4 years at Oklahoma State. But since I'm a kid who has had 6 years of straight college, I feel that my time has come to contribute to the working world. I've put in the time and effort to developing a comprehensive knowledge of both public relations and advertising - now is the time to put my brain to use in a challenging, new way. And I'm excited.

Since my backpack day I've filed for graduation, which passed - hooray! I also filed my taxes for the first time, which was a very interesting experience that included many phone calls to my dad for uncertain questions.

So, do all these events mean I'm getting older? Or more mature? Wiser?!?? It's tough to think that soon I'll be sitting in job (big-girl job) interviews rattling off my knowledge on the subject of advertising, music promotion, design, marketing, public relations, or screen printing. :) Soon I'll have my hands on a paycheck that doesn't require piggy bank backup. Soon I'll be an adult. Gasp!

Or will I soon realize that I should have applied to get my Ph.D?

iWant.

Reason #1 for wanting an iPhone:

When leaving a message for someone with an iPhone, you don't have to listen to some lady give you instructions on how to leave a voice message.

Reason #2 for wanting an iPhone:

A new app called "Kern." Typography lovers, get excited. This app is like a Tetris game where a word with one letter vacant drops from the top of the screen. At the bottom is the missing letter waiting to be aligned with the falling word. You lose points depending on how off your Kerning is. Amazing.






But let me remind you - I drop things. Thus, I should probably never own an iPhone. :(

Excellence.

So, I've been exploring new design blogs lately and here are few darling finds...I wish I had the money to buy these! So cute...

I'd give this to my sister, Kelly, the sushi lady.


Aren't these glasses amazing???



I'm glad I found Hello Bauldoff, a great design inspiration blog. :)

Bauer.

24 stresses me out more than school.

Purple pain.

Today for my art direction class we explored logo redesign where we took a preexisting logo and amped it up, or we could take two logos and mash them up. I chose the latter route. Here's what I mashed...



+



=

Prints!

I enjoy exploring new ways to do artsy things, so this past semester I got the wild idea to try my hand at screenprinting. After many frustrated evenings of burning screens, not having good water pressure to wash my screens and many other bumps in the road, I got the hang of it. I must thank my man Mondo at Jerry's Art-A-Rama for laughing at me for burning so many screens - he explained I was exposing my screen for too long (10 minutes) instead of 3 minutes. Yes. 3 minutes. I ruined a few screens, but at least I'm on the right page now! Thank goodness!

Here I am making my sister's wedding invitations...



A little closer...



As soon as my sister has mailed out the invitations I'll post the final product on here so you can see the work I did. So much fun! And if you're getting married and want a new style of invitation, e-mail me and we'll work something out! emilygrober@gmail.com.

Other exciting news: My website should be up and running by Tuesday! I'm so excited for the big launch! Woo!

Time for the Super, I mean, Puppy Bowl! Byeee

New Campaigns.

My last trek as a portfolio student has begun and there is no time for lagging. I've been thrust into two different campaigns already - my portfolio 3 product is Janie & Jack, a children's clothing store, and my art direction product is Long's Horseradish...mmm. The Long's campaign is for the One Show College Design Competition, which is a big deal to win, so good luck to my partner, Allyson, and me. We're redesigning the product packaging...take a look at their current packaging.



Looks kinda like a paint jar, huh? Mmm! The good thing is is that we have plenty of options on our designs - I won't post them on here until we submit them to the competition, otherwise some other students may steal our ideas. Seriously.

As for my artist and venue management course - it's true love. We're having speakers come in (many from C3), so I'll be learning a lot from that. I'm also thinking my professor could be a good resource for possible jobs, so that's an added benefit! I'm the only graduate student in that course, so I'm going to update my other blog after each speaker visits. Should be good!

Back to designing, folks! Byeeeee!

My Site.

Here's a little preview of my Web site homepage - what do you think?



Once the designing is done and my friend Cal does his HTML magic I'll have a killer site for all my goodies! I'm excited! I'll let you know when www.emilygrober.com is up and running! Until then, I'll give you little tastes here and there! :)

New Year, New Things.

Well, happy 2009 to you all! 2008 was great, but this year brings a lot of new things. For example...

1. I graduate with a master's degree from Texas. Whoa.
2. My sister and Carl get married in Mexico on June 13. So excited!
3. I'll start a job somewhere - Tulsa? OKC? Italy???
4. Mabel turns 1. I turn 24...in two days. "Half way to 48!" says my mom.
5. I'll be a maid of honor, throwing the most amazing bachelorette party and personal shower.
6. I'll say goodbye to homework. :)

So, I'm really excited to begin this year and start some new chapters in my life. I'm especially happy I got to start the new year with my best friends - Stacy, Jaryn and Jeff. It was quite a NYE celebration! I'll have photos to post once I get back to my apartment next week. It's always nice to start the new year with people you love and adore.

I just realized...when I graduate from UT I'll have to start a new blog. It won't be grad school madness any longer...it'll be real life madness. Hmm...that's crazy to think about...

Apologies for the choppy sentences. My brain is warming back up for my final semester.