This was another trip that I was less than enthusiastic about what we would find of interest, but came home having learned quite a bit. We braved the cold, drizzly, rain to meet up with a group of men who run a print department in a large room on the Chatt. State campus. They seemed like “regular joes” at first introduction, but it quickly became apparent these were no “average joes”. These guys know their stuff. They showed us all aspects of the printing process including how they actually mix Pantone colors, which was my favorite part. It was a lot less scientific and precise actually than I had envisioned. The guy took what looked like a putty knife and a couple of cans of primary colors and slapped them on a piece of cardboard and then mixed them together. Not what I expected, but apparently an industry standard way of doing it. The folding process and machine, and operator were all very fascinating. I never knew there were so many things that could affect folding. This was a cool trip and I have found a great resource for some reasonably priced printing.
CHATTANOOGA STATE PRINTING DEPARTMENT
SELF BRANDING
This was a very enlightening project. It is very hard to put down on paper how you sum yourself up, both verbally and visually. Mostly for me it was hard verbally. It is always uncomfortable to have to define yourself because you always wonder if other people will see you an entirely different way. In other words, you wonder if people see the same strengths in you as you see in yourself. The good thing is, often times they see even better things. This seems to have happened to me in this project. I realized oddly enough that I can draw decently enough. I’m no Picasso, but I’m not half bad either. This has been quite an epiphany for me. While this project started out to be kind of routine in nature, it has ended up actually being a gateway for a new frontier. I’m glad we did it. I hope I have more moments like this.
TAKE ROOT
The Take Root project for me had a lot of ups and downs. Working in a team of five people who at the outset had no clue of what we were doing, actually produced quite a nice little booklet. It was nice working with the Leadership Chattanooga Group. They were enthusiastic and seemed to embrace the concepts that were developed early on. It was satisfying to work with a real life client. Also to give to the community in the form of creating awareness of a growing problem, and then consequently coming up with a possible solution for it, was very rewarding. The event culminated with a gathering with the mayor and the tree commissioner, to plant a ceremonial tree. All involved shoveled a little dirt to make room for the new tree. Even though it was cold, drizzly, winter day, I thought the world seemed a little brighter when we left.
