A False Start and Lucky Breaks

After I kicked off that enthusiastic countdown to the new Web site a few days ago, my trusty Mac (also known to many as Francesca) lost her graphics card, and my Web developer started new classes and a new internship. The site is coming along, but is not quite SO imminent, and there will be no photo countdown because I cannot access my photos.

So there’s the false start. No Web site quite yet, and you’re just going to have to contain your excitement to see more of my recent work until the new site is live.

As for the lucky breaks: While Francesca will be out of my hands for up to seven (!) days, I do not have to pay for the replacement part, and I was able to borrow a computer from a friend. All in all, I think I dodged a bullet on this one, and I look forward to putting up a post in about a week or two that directs you to the new portfolio!

Countdown to a new online portfolio!

For the past few years – no exaggeration – I have needed a complete Web site overhaul for my design portfolio. I started this blog as a “portfolio annex” so that I could post new work more easily, but it is far from ideal. I have finally been spurred to action with the right motivation and access to some key resources. Namely, a photographer and a site developer.

Last week, co-worker Elliot Haney shot all of my most recent work, so that I can now be proud to display professional images of my designs. In the past couple days, Daniel Stone, singer/songwriter of The Model Planes began to build the infrastructure for a minimalist site to showcase my designs without clutter or confusing navigation.

Soon, this site will be a memory (at least as a portfolio annex), but in the meantime, this week I will post a photo countdown to the new site launch: A project a day!

Traditional wedding invitation set with original scrollwork

Logo design for a local photographer

I designed this logo and tagline for Leise Jones, a Boston-based photographer, in the fall. She produces high-quality, stunning photographs that are unique and creative, while technically sound and reasonably priced. She told me, “when possible, I produce compelling series of images, rather than individual photographs, that together tell a story, communicate an idea and evoke feelings.”

Leise’s work is natural and not flashy, yet always interesting. She is committed to her clients and to ensuring that everything she produces is of an extremely high caliber. Leise needed a logo to convey her down-to-earth photography and personality, her photographic storytelling and the sparks of creativity and quirk she brings to a photo shoot.

Journeyman Press Goes The Extra Mile

Coming into my position as communications manager at City Year Boston, I had the luxury of benefitting from a pre-established relationship with a printer. The City Year Headquarters communication team had long before built up a relationship with The Journeyman Press in Newburyport, Mass.

I took it as a good sign that a few weeks into working at City Year, I was invited along on a Mr. Roger’s “Picture Picture”-style behind-the-scenes tour at Journeyman. I had my first chance to meet Steve Silverstein, the president of the company, who is always ready with a fresh witticism or a good-natured rib to keep things light and amiable. Steve seems to be as conversant about every past job, past client and piece of equipment as a Bostonian is about the infamous B-Line.

As time has passed and I have now worked with Steve on a few different projects, I feel lucky to have inherited such a genuine, flexible and capable printer. Steve has no qualms about consulting with me at-length about various inks and varnishes, providing me with detailed options and sending me along to his production folks when he’s not quite sure of an answer. His production team is just as top-notch, working with me on press day with seemingly unending patience and innovation. The JPress team was invested in making sure that the final product off the press was something we could all be proud of.

It’s so nice to know that after I’ve invested my time and creative energy in designing piece I am excited about, Journeyman Press go out of its way to make my vision come to life on paper.

A New Spring’s Resolution

I’ve never been one for making New Year’s Resolutions. I tend to do my serious personal reflecting around the Jewish new year – Rosh Hashana – and save January 1 for parties and sparkles, good food, friends and family.

But now that I am in full-fledged winter overload and am dealing with the stress of an unexpected move, I think it’s time to make an intentional positive change. So here it is: I am going to do my best to keep this blog up and running and keep posting my new design work here and/or on www.laurieherschman.com. As it stands, both are out of date and I’m excited to share some of my work and some of the things that have been piquing my attention recently in the design and social justice worlds.

Please take this post as a sign, just like those early crocus shoots popping out of the dull winter grass; rejuvenation is coming to this blog! Over the next week or so I will work to get some recent work up here, and will be making somewhat regular posts from here on out.

(Let’s hope this little crocus shoot doesn’t get covered in a late spring snowfall.)

On the 5th anniversary

A few days ago was the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall. Throughout the last weeks of August and the start of September – and plenty of other moments throughout hurricane season – I often find myself overtaken by thoughts of Katrina and her aftermath. The changes my family has been through. The changes my state has been through. The things that are missing. The new atmosphere at home. The fresh perspectives. The defeat. The optimism and re-framing of thoughts and hopes.

Most telling, perhaps, is the simple but extremely common phrase of “after Katrina.” It seeps into so many conversations, whether with family and friends from Louisiana or new acquaintances elsewhere in the country. Life is about the before and after. Everything in life is relative, and for us Louisianians, the biggest marker in our lives is Katrina.

Over the past couple of years, my strong emotional reactions to thinking about Katrina have lessened, yet this August 29 I was surprised to be confronted with a sudden onset of my own very real sadness. To be so caught off-guard by my own reaction was a reminder of the complexity of the aftermath of a trauma and of human emotion.

In the spirit of acknowledging the mixture of feeling, thought and fact surrounding Katrina, here are a sampling of varied posts and articles from local sources:

Blog post by JC Cohen, Director of URJ Henry S. Jacobs camp about positive action Jacobs took after the storm and a bit of a status update on the camp community: Hurricane Katrina and Jacobs Camp – Reform Judaism.

Times-Picayune piece by Bruce Nolan that highlights some of the broader changes in NOLA and Louisiana – good and bad: 5 years later, we understand how Hurricane Katrina forever changed us | NOLA.com.

A reflective piece on life after Katrina and a pervading sense of fragility and the unknown, by author Rodger Kamenetz in time for the Jewish New Year: After the Exodus – by Rodger Kamenetz > Tablet Magazine – A New Read on Jewish Life.

Jeans McQueens Creative work posted

Please check out the Jeans McQueens collateral page in my Portfolio Annex – some recent designs I’ve done for a talented friend. (I have bartered some of this design work for her work; I can testify to the quality of her fun hats, mittens, cowls and accessories!)

Gone, but not forgotten…

I realized I need to explain my long silence here (although I’ll be the first to admit I was never an incredibly reliable blogger). About a month ago I was hired as Communications Manager at City Year Boston. I am feeling really great about the position, the work culture and the new format of my life. I will handle all communications for the site, including: collateral writing and design, media outreach, event scripting, event branding and design, Web and social media updating and so much more!

While I still intend to blog occasionally, I think it’s reasonable to expect a good bit of silence on this page. I will continue using this site to post recent portfolio work, so please check back, and I am now considering how to harness my new work schedule to tackle my long overdue portfolio site redesign at www.laurieherschman.com.

I am always open to receiving project proposals and would love to discuss anything you have in mind.

Have a great August!

*This is my personal blog and in no way reflects the views of AmeriCorps or City Year.

8 Lessons for Creating Social Impact | Blog | design mind

Being a “graphic designer for social change” can mean very different things depending on which designer you ask. Using design skills to promote a cause has come into vogue, and I hope it is a foundational change in the industry rather than a trend. And signs actually point to “yes” on that front, which is exciting.

This post: 8 Lessons for Creating Social Impact | Blog | design mind by Roger Fabricant quickly points out some obstacles to this method of counting on designers to create change – namely that designers often get too wrapped up in the design and idea, and they may easily forget or put the actual issue and need on the backburner.

As a designer working fairly exclusively within the nonprofit, social business and entrepreneurial world, I have realized most of Fabricant’s eight lessons as I have progressed in my work. #1 and #3 resonate with me as key takeaways in this field. The change you are working for really must come before your design and clever ideas in some instances. And the people making real change in our society – believe me, you want to listen to them. You are not just going to be working with an opinionated client; you are, most likely, going to be working with an innovative, opinionated client with far more understanding and perspective on the issue at hand.

8 Lessons for Creating Social Impact | Blog | design mind.

“Pursue” the kind of Jewish community you know to be right | Jewschool

“Pursue” the kind of Jewish community you know to be right | Jewschool.

Great post on the AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps annual event last night, May 25, 2010.

Below are some photos of a couple of my designs in situ. (photos by Hannah Rosenblum) To check out the evite, invite and Tribute Book designs more closely, enter my Portfolio Annex.