elizabethramos.com

seeking shelter.

For months now, we’ve been looking at ways we can move closer to downtown. Every time we find a possible solution, there’s something keeping us from moving forward. Maybe it’s the timing, the price, the location. Maybe we’re being too picky. But for whatever reason, we haven’t found home yet.

Yesterday we visited art&light, our favorite gallery in Greenville. It’s been a while since we’ve been there and it was really great to see all the new work, visit the adjoining galleries and talk to Teresa, the gallery owner. We left with two beautiful woodcut pieces by local artist Kent Ambler. Other than posters and functional objects, I can’t remember the last time we bought a piece of art.

Seeking Shelter, by Kent Ambler

While I love the colors and the circular shape, the subject matter and title of this one really spoke to me. Andrew, Melanie and I are looking for home. We haven’t found it yet, and as frustrating as it is sometimes, that’s where we are right now.

The title and timing couldn’t be more appropriate.

Buying this piece feels like a turning point somehow. I don’t know if that’s just wishful thinking, but I can tell you it definitely feels good to buy art again.

greenville grok

Last week, I had the privilege of attending Greenville Grok — a ‘conference’ that’s a little hard to explain because it’s not really a conference. There were no guest speakers. No ‘theme’ or a single overarching topic. And no exorbitant price tag. But over 100 people from all over the country gathered here in Greenville to meet each other, pose questions and ask advice from their peers in the creative industry — mostly ten and twenty minutes at a time. To sum it up, it was a weekend of idea sharing that left everyone pretty inspired.

Photo by Mike Meyer, sign created by Marco Suarez

Somehow our industry (or at least this corner of it) has moved away from the highly competitive norm, and things like Brooklyn Beta and Grok are sprouting up for the purpose of helping each other learn and grow. Independent designers definitely seem to be the majority in this world. My theory: independent designers — much more than their agency and in-house counterparts — have embraced collaboration (perhaps out of necessity) and found that it’s a much more effective way to get things done.

You can see some really great photos of the event by Ismael Burciaga here.

I thought the Grok format was really refreshing. We were broken into four random groups for each session, so each set of topics was able to draw on a different combination of minds. It sounded like there were a lot of really fascinating talks happening simultaneously, but here are a few I was able to be part of:

Don’t lose the joy of creating. — Marco Suarez
Complete projects are energizing, so if your days are full of long-term or never-really-ending projects, be sure you also pursue side projects that have an end. Create things that bring yourself joy and that process will recharge your batteries.

Consume data in a more responsible way. — Rob Wright
This was a great reminder to be careful what we believe and endorse online. Everyone has the ability to ‘publish’ and yet it may not all be accurate. Value first-hand accounts more highly than others and take time to digest the information you’re receiving before pushing it back out there in a retweet or link.

The ethics of technology. — Katie Stewart
The big question “Does knowing about something make you responsible?” Is there an ethical way to use and own technology or is our consumerism in the technology realm creating harmful situations for people on the other side of the world? One of my big takeaways from this discussion is that we need to reconsider the permanence of objects — aka how often do we treat non-disposable things as disposable?

Content Ownership — Cameron Koczon
Reminding us how much content we have strewn all over the web and asking aloud if the keepers of our information will be good stewards of it. We give up a lot of our rights on the web without a second thought, but it’s an issue we need to start thinking about because we’ve given a lot of people a lot of our content (facebook, twitter, pinterest, path, etc, etc.). Also, what happens to our information if that company goes under?

Other things to ponder:
· A fascinating look at John’s phone: a great date night phone?

· “Technology should help us be more productive, not less productive.”
— David Stevens in relation to email.

· Giving the Inbox Zero method a try.

· Some great suggestions for making Indie Craft Parade more profitable.

· Take a closer look at our current ‘team building’ events. Are they all competitive by nature or are they collaborative and actually encouraging teamwork?

· I really need to read more.

i love trains.

I don’t know when it started. Maybe with my brother’s model train. Or with the family Amtrak ride we took from Kansas City to St. Louis when I was a kid. But I absolutely love the sight of a train chugging down the tracks. There’s something about it that’s nostalgic and wonderful and industrial all at the same time.

There are train tracks right beside my office (the brick building), which means at least once a day we hear the whistle and rumble of the train going by.

I keep telling myself that I’ll take another ride one day.

why greenville?

I recently created a Pinterest board full of my favorite things about Greenville, SC. It’s not a comprehensive guide to the city — or even an unbiased one. It’s just my opinion of what makes Greenville awesome.

I’ll be adding to it regularly and I hope it’s a helpful tool to start exploring the city, whether you’re planning a visit, considering a move, or already live here. Enjoy!

learning, just because.

I have a fairly long list of skills I’d like to learn ‘one day’, and this weekend I finally made progress on one of them by taking a (free!) knitting class at the library.

My project at the end of class. Wobbly, but better than I would have done figuring it out on my own!

The sad part is that I really can’t remember how long it’s been (if ever) that I learned something in a group setting just for fun. Here, my only motivation is to learn something — not to earn a grade or be the best at it — but because I want to learn. Plus, after years of following online tutorials and trying to figure things out by myself, the experience of learning alongside others is just really fun.

life in greenville.

I spent part of my Saturday working on the Life In Greenville project, an idea that was first introduced to me over 2 years ago. I remember this because 1) it was also the day I met most of the (now) CoWork crew, and 2) at the time, I was the only person in the room without a Twitter account (which was remedied shortly thereafter).

I’m very excited about this project, partially because of the way it’s taken place. The idea itself: Use our talents to create a good looking website for Greenville. One whose design more accurately represents the city we live in than the existing ‘official’ Greenville sites. In short, help outsiders realize how great Greenville is.

Fantastic site design by Jeremy of Headlamp Creative in progress

Because everyone stays busy with their own projects and jobs, nothing usually comes of ideas like this — no matter how great they are. But CoWork planned a hack-a-thon/design-a-thon for this weekend to make sure the idea didn’t get neglected. Organizational meetings, content writing, design, illustration, development, and everything else it takes to build a website was done by a team of about 2 dozen people working off and on over a few days. The entire project was built by people who love Greenville.

CoWork Greenville headquarters

There will, of course, be bugs and improvements to be made after the fact, but if you know anything about website building, you know how amazing it is to create a full site from scratch in such a short amount of time — not to mention a responsive site that looks amazing on any device. It shows what amazing talent exists in the Greenville web community.

The developers writing their various languages and doing what they do.

I did a tiny bit of content writing and a some design support — helping select and resize images to fit the amazing site design. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but I feel privileged to be part of this project even in a small way.

The site launches later today, so check out LifeinGreenville.com to see the final product!

All photos courtesy of Life in Greenville.

the story of our city.

One of my favorite things about Greenville is that we have people who know how to make things happen. Whether it’s Greenville Forward and their community-sourced idea generator What If Greenville, the folks at CoWork (more on them later), or one of the many small businesses and restaurants, Greenvillians are definitely not sitting still.

CityStory is one of the latest and greatest things happening in our town. Instead of talking about the fact that Greenville should have a coffee table book that shows off our city — these folks went out and made it. Not only that, it looks like they’ve done it well — a crucial factor in the success of any venture.

This team of writers, artists, and photographers set out to share the story of Greenville, South Carolina through words and photography. The final product is a beautiful monochromatic hard-bound book. You can see a sneak peek on their site, or check out a few of the spreads below.

Preview spreads from the book, Greenville — Imprints of a City

This project not only capitalizes on our city pride, it tells the story behind the buildings we see every day. CityStory has also produced some really beautiful videos using imagery from the book and interviews from locals. Even though I’ve spent hours digging through old pictures of Greenville online and reading about its past, I can’t wait to pick up this book and learn more about the city I already love.

If you want to check it out in person, the official book launch party is this Friday at art & light. Details are below!

CityStory Greenville Launch Party
Friday, December 2, 2012
art & light gallery, from 6-9pm
Pendleton St. in West Greenville

winning.

If you’re a business owner or an artist, don’t miss this opportunity! Indie Craft Parade is giving away two ad spaces on the blog for the month of December. It’s very easy to enter and winners will be chosen next Friday the 25th!

Find out more info here.

keep it local.

A few weeks ago some friends and I headed up the road to Asheville, NC. The main reason for our trip was to meet Grace of D*S at her book signing there. We had so much fun exploring the city and checking out the shops, galleries and restaurants before we headed over to the bookstore. (If you want to see where all we went, look for more photos at Erin’s blog.)

Asheville has always had a strong ‘buy local’ movement (see examples of their campaigns below), but I was excited to see a new ‘Local is the new Black’ promotion around town. Beautiful silver screenprinted posters stand out against shop windows all over town.

Various Asheville Grown Business Alliance (AGBA) Campaigns as seen around town. Photo credits clockwise from top right: alicia.pimental / briface / ello lovey / Ron Gunzburger

It’s a great reminder as we head into the holidays. Every city has independent retailers struggling to make ends meet, and we can choose to support them and our local economy with our purchases.

If you’re not sure where to start, there’s a growing movement that can help. The 3/50 Project has been very instrumental for me in demonstrating exactly what kind of impact buying local can have. From their website:

“For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that money in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.”

The basic idea behind their project is to encourage consumers to pick 3 local businesses whose doors they would be sad to see close, and commit to spend $50 (total) each month at these stores. This is a great campaign with a very worthy mission.

I’ve seen a sign online that says “If you really want to occupy Wall Street, do your holiday shopping at a small independent merchant.” While I don’t know if that’s the entire answer, it’s definitely a good start! Support your local businesses this holiday season — whether that’s an artist or a restaurant or shop owner in your city. Think of creative ways to give gifts that support others in your community.