[How to] Make Glitter Glue! (in Photoshop)

Sorry to disappoint if you thought this was a tutorial for how to make glitter glue IRL, BUT I hope this digital fabrication of it will bring you similar levels of joy.

Glitter is one of my favorite elements, maybe because it's often the opposite of professional so if I'm using it that means I'm working on a fun personal project that doesn't have any risk or feedback to it. I've been using the same glitter .pat files (mentioned below) for YEARS now and have learned some fun (basic) tricks with it. In this post you'll learn how writing or decorating rather messily before adding this glitter glue magic is a great way to get a little more loose in the digital space and have fun!

Ingredients

— Photoshop

— A way to draw in Photoshop (Wacoms make this a bajillion times easier IMO)

— Most importantly, the FREE .pat files this wonderful designer has graciously shared (that are made from actual photos of glitter!)

Steps

1. Have a new layer of its own where you roughly draw the words or shape you'd like to be in glitter.  Make sure your brush is 100% Hardness, 100% opacity, and make your best judgement on size for your needs.

****Don't worry at all about:****

Imperfection— Here imperfect is best. We're creating the look of something hand drawn remember, if the letters were perfectly spaced and squiggle free, it would look fishy. 

Color— We're eventually going to overlay the pattern on this so just use something easy to see.

2. Taper some edges like the glue is running out, and conversely glob some edges, ends, and all places lines meet. Consider how glue consistency is- there are never sharp corners, and when lines meet they sort of join and bead together.

3. Add the glitter! Make sure you have the .pat files installed. (If you don't know how or feel like doing this manually, you can simply open each .jpeg in Photoshop and go to Layer > Define Pattern...) 

Double-click on your layer to add a layer style.

Hit 'Pattern' and choose from the drop down one of your new glitter options.

Play around with the colors and scales for your needs. For some reason, (currently) Photoshop can scale your .pat files at 100%, or 50%. I have no idea why (if anyone knows the answer please share your wisdom), but any other percentage that does not fit this perfectly looks horrible and blurry. But luckily, the designer of these glitter patterns included images of glitter at different zooms. It might take some time to figure out which color and scale, at either 100% or 50% works best for your final output. Always judge your layer styles by final output! My example is 1200x1200 if you are wondering/following my numbers.

When picking which glitter color to use, I usually end up adjusting my background later depending on what the color inspires. Of course, you can always change the glitter color with a 'Hue' adjustment.

Congrats! you have glitter! ... but not glue yet.

4. We're going to add highlights/shading to give the illusion this is glue. To do this, we're going to use good ol' Bevel & Emboss. This part of the layer style modal can be frightening with its ability to create the kind of "late 80's uber-intense we're using computers now so lets show off the effects we can do with them" styles. BUT, it's all about subtlety here, and using the lowest settings we can to achieve the look. 

Make sure your highlights are overlaid as "Normal" - this is the most important part! This is how we achieve the glossed over glue style, and we luck out with this feature.

This step also takes some playing around and testing to see what works best at your scale. Remember at default settings, Photoshop's layer styles do not scale! So work at the final size (or higher if you will end up converting it to a smart object).

Below are my numbers (for a 1200 x 1200 canvas):

I also recommend a very subtle drop shadow. Pay attention to the tapered edges you made when judging. Essentially we don't want this shadow to be even noticed, it should enhance the illusion without it being super clear why. 

Here are my numbers for my drop shadow:

5. We're basically there! At this point I like to adjust the original drawing if it needs. For example, I felt my tapered edges needed to be even thinner after seeing the glitter glue texture on, so I used the eraser tool with no feather to adjust. You can add and adjust freely to this layer, the styles of course will stay the same.

CONGRATS! You've successfully made some glitter glue with no mess to your home.

If anyone uses this technique for a project I'd love to see what you've made.

Adding glitter glue is so much fun, even if its just for a personal art project. Hope this helped or inspired you do make something!

Best,
Danielle Attinella

These roses were grown in our garden! They were so beautiful and our brown kitchen counter is the perfect spot to take photos of them. This was a Valentines Day post I made. <3 

How Traveling Actually DID Cure My Mind (and how it didn't)

"No matter where you go, there you are"

Backstory: from graduating college in 2010 to 2016 I held office jobs in agencies and lived in Minnesota (basically) my whole life. Since being a kid I felt compelled and curious to see the world and understand other cultures, but I never made it a priority so it never happened. When I was 27 and had only been out of the country a couple times, I made a huge leap to go on a round the world trip solo for 6 months. Since, it's been a complete lifestyle change working remote and living in Rome.

*****Disclosure: I’ m adding this years later after rereading this article. ‘Traveling’ especially solo relies on so many privileges, considering passport, race, nationality, family, being able bodied, and more. I was thinking of deleting this post now that I look back at it considering the level of blissful ignorance! But I guess I will leave it here as it captures a moment of time. Just know that if you are reading this, my mindset has changed!!!! Thanks!!!*******

Recently I read a lengthy visual article on Medium titled "Travel Is No Cure For the Mind" explaining the logic behind why travel cannot fix the mental barriers you must cross to achieve true happiness. If you don't have time to read all of it the general gist is: you might find monotony in your daily life working at an office, so decide to travel. It starts as a few trips, and ends up with actually moving to another country, then in time you inevitably need to find a job again and end up in the same dreadful monotony but with different scenery.

The article concludes with how you must appreciate your current surroundings to be truly free and happy in the mind, that traveling essentially has no affect on this. 

However, I believe the experience of travel cultivates momental life changing skills if you let it. Maybe the author of this article found themselves in a similar monotonous pattern after moving somewhere else, but each situation is unique. Leaving your routine all together in one form or another allows a reevaluation and consideration like no other. You are more comfortable taking those right risks. When there’s no path ahead, you are in full control of your destiny with all your usable attention energy to create something meaningful. Isn't meaning one step above happiness?

Actually it was the common phrase you see written across sunsets shared on FB, "No matter where you go, there you are" that I tried to force myself to believe when feeling stuck being broke and also with only literally 5 days of vacation a year while my best friends were living/having meaningful experiences in other countries across the world.

The issue I see now with this phrase is that it can be interpreted suggesting it's not worth traveling (or trying a lifestyle change) because there's a cap to who you can be, there's a limit to your personality and you cannot work through inner struggles with outer circumstances, similar to what the author of the Medium article was writing. This interpretation is encouragement for mediocrity and simplifies the human experience as something linear and doesn't recognize our ability to grow into completely different lifestyles that in the long run benefits society. Certainly, you will be everywhere you are, that's a good thing. The more present you can be in the now, the more understanding you have of who you are and your place in the world. The world needs more people that think for themselves and have the energy and time to consider how the world might be improved.

No matter what logical reason, graphical explanations or number of times we tell ourselves a phrase over and over, mental barriers sometimes need to be crossed with physical manifestations too.

Let's be honest, isn't it a way more convenient solution to suggest all our problems can be fixed solely in our minds? 
 

Can travel cure a mind? or wherever you go, there you are?

For me, the cliche of leaving my office job for a round the world trip wasn't some external temporary period of time that I returned from and resumed the same day to day as before as was the plan. Instead, it was a physical action that propelled the next chapter in my life I was meant to live. The next chapter didn't include allegiance to an ineffective 9-5 lifestyle devoting my time and energy to another company with the carrot of security and retirement funds. The next chapter included owning my own content, taking risks, creating things, and living in a never-ending state of curiosity. I can soon enter my 30's location independent building meaningful things with potential to generate income for my retirement. That's a risk I wouldn't have taken before my trip, but it's a risk I can't imagine not taking now and my days have an unprecedented sense of meaning and adventure.

As we are all connected, as one person’s revelation is connected to another’s, my story sounds cliche because it is. The reason I’m writing this is because I think many others can relate. Just as someone else’e cheesy story is what made me feel confident to take that risk, maybe someone stumbling on this one day will be confident in themselves too.

So in list form...

How traveling actually DID cure my mind:

• Travel took me out of routine— I was able to see my life choices from more of an objective birds eye view, and pay attention to what felt natural and what didn't (for example, waking up to an alarm 71% of my life with an immediate necessity to physically go to a different place never felt natural, and I never miss it. Unless I have something new and exciting to wake up for, I'm now able to wake up naturally after a complete sleep cycle and take sometimes hours to process and meditate on my intent for the day. Sleep is so important to health and happiness!)

• Travel made me excited to learn again— I didn't realize how numb and simple my brain was starting to mush to until I had opportunity to challenge it again. In high school and college I was so focused on self-guided learning. I'd watch countless documentaries and switch captions and voices on movies between english/spanish/french simply for fun. Curiosity and excitement to learn was inherently a part of me, but after working in the routine of office life without many challenges or threat to comfort in my day made my learning processes dulled. After work I just wanted to have a half glass of wine and zone out to the latest Netflix obsession. I just wanted to be entertained, but I never really felt like I was using my skills toward moving my life forward too. Now, I'm so CURIOUS and am so aware of all that I don't know. I'm learning Italian and Azeri, and am generally interested in other languages too just because it's fun. I still enjoy a few episodes of a show at the end of the night, but now it feels like a truly satisfying rest from living my day with intention.

• Travel made me closer to my family— I know this doesn't make much sense, but I used to live a 20 minute drive to my sister's family, and 1.2 hr drive to my parents. Sometimes, we'd go months without even talking on the phone. On the contrary, while traveling and also now while living in Rome we make it a point to videochat at least once a month, and when we do talk there's more meaning and significance. We listen more, we care more. Of course, there are also downsides which I'll mention in the next section.

• Travel taught me how to take risks— I used to take sort of ‘pretend’ risks, for example dye my hair a color a zany color, or try a new medium when painting. But it always felt these these took the place of the ‘real’ risks a truly wanted to take. Who knows, maybe little risks can slowly build confidence. But I would repeatedly get really close to making a big lifestyle switch then back out. I've since learned with risk can come great reward, and it has brought be much confidence in my decisions and abilities to try for things I might be scared of.

• Travel let me strengthen friendships with people from my past— When you are hyper aware of your physical location in the world, life looks different. Anyone you mildly know in that same physical location as you are so special. The BEST part of my trip was truly all the people I spent it with. I am blessed to have known people from all over and rarely had to feel like a complete outsider staying at a hostel. It was so meaningful to have opportunity to get to know these people more, and go from acquaintance to friends.

• Travel helped my fear of flying, plus my anxiety and depression was absent. Before leaving I was legit afraid of flying. It was something that built as I got older, and more worrisome. Now, while it’s still something I can’t say I love, there is the ability to see a flight as relaxing, almost meditative. It's the one time you can rest your brain without any responsibility.

• Travel helped me learn humility. While this article is pretty heavy on the confident and arrogant side, my experiences making mistakes and being utterly embarrassed were really healthy. (This point I added in 2021 because reading this article is a bit cringey, ha!)

I'm sure there's more, but those are the big ones.

It would be highly one sided and dishonest if I wrote all the ways travel cured my mind if I didn't mention the ways it didn't. So...

How traveling discouraged my mind:

• Traveling means you miss out on important events with family and friends— Thought I'd get the obvious one out of the way. It was kind of heartbreaking to have to Skype with my niece on her birthday like some digital talking avatar. It's hard to see your family and friends on social media experiencing things together and feeling left out, like traditions or seasons you used to celebrate.

• Traveling means you'll loose friends— Before I left, I felt like I had several fun networks of friends I could comfortable meet up with at a bar or party and legit feel welcome. However when you're gone for so long and are busy that whole time, it's hard to reach out to people and no one reaches out to you, and soon a lot of friends start to seem like acquaintances, and by the time you're back in town you feel kind of shy to reach out to them. Despite everyone’s good intentions, sometimes it just doesn’t work out unfortunately. It’s very common for people that travel long term to suffer from loneliness, despite maybe their happy instagram photos on the beach.

• Traveling means you learn how no one really cares— I know this sounds incredibly negative, but hear me out. While going to new exciting places and meeting new people, I rarely felt lonely. I only felt this when I returned and assumed family and friends were curious about my time, but no one expressed interest to see any photos! I had been anticipating maybe hooking up my laptop to the tv and explain things in detail, and maybe that would have happened if all the variables lined up just right, but the reality is no one can really care that much. But how could they? You can't imagine or relate to these experiences, how does it benefit you? And wouldn't that take F O R E V E R to go through the hundreds of photos?! That doesn't sounds fun at all.

Despite these challenges from travel, I still think the benefits (in personal development) outweigh.

Contrary to the Medium article, I would argue that travel can in fact 'Cure the Mind' because it takes you out of the day to day routine of giving your usable attention energy to someone else, reveals the great reward in taking meaningful risks, and teaches invaluable skills and perspectives that can propel you into the life you're supposed to be living.

No matter where you go, there you are learning and creating and carving a new life path.

Thanks for reading,
Danielle

 

Startup jitters: 'Hip My Trip' (hopefully not 'Trip & Break My Hip')

UPDATE: website is live! HipMyTrip.com thanks to collaboration with Onar.

I've been waiting to write about Hip My Trip until the website was up and I could proudly share the completed project, but I saw a lot of value in expressing where I'm at right now in the beginning stages.  So, as of March 28 2017, this is where I'm at.

What is Hip My Trip?

Hip my Trip is my project, currently just living on Etsy, that creates custom artistic maps to remember your impactful trips. It was started after I plugged in the route of my round-world trip in 2016/17 to Google Maps. It was functional, but for extra fun I made a stripped down version that was much more aesthetically pleasing. It hit me that many others probably would love to have a way to show special trips or geographical locations. So I researched, and saw there were definitely a handful of shops (largely on Etsy) that were selling geographical prints and products, but I couldn't find anyone actually showing the route, which to me was the best part! The route is what you're in charge of, there's a lot of pride and significance in it.

Questions that keep me up at night:

• Is no one specializing in trip routes because there's no demand for it?
• How the hell do I compete with other map art companies that have had their shop open for 7+ years and have 6k sales? How do some of these shops pay for thousands of listings? How do people even find me on Etsy if these companies completely swarm the space, with employees to help and Etsy SEO tools to keep all products new and in front of others?
• Ethically am I supposed to be creating all the background patterns? Is it fair if I purchase a pattern and use repeatedly on products? Is it OK to use patterns that belong to other cultures? Isn't it unethical as a white person to use elements from other cultures to make a profit? Does that change if I buy directly from artists and use credit? Is it OK to create my own patterns from elements I take from stock art?
• How would I be able to afford to offer any small items if the custom design time is what costs the most, not the materials? Are there products I can offer other than posters that are still cost effective and worth it for the customer to hire me for? Do I want to only be open to custom work?
• Is it worth putting hours of time into setting up geographical prints and products like the other shops with my own style, or are people just looking for whats cheapest, which I cant afford?
• Is it worth all the time and effort to post and manage my Instagram and social channels just for hope that someone will be a customer from it? Other shops with tons of sales don't seem to be stressing about it and they are quite successful.
• Is the name Hip My Trip, and concept of focusing on the routes from trips, too narrow of a category? Do I think it's a great idea because I'm weird and don't relate to most people and what I might think is a great idea might not be as celebrated by others? Is traveling for leisure too much tied to privilege? How to I try to be aware of this and balance with some good?

Thoughts that keep me going:

• I believe in the product- it's beautiful and lets you tell your story 
• The feeling of inadequacy and comparison to other shops is a blessing and a curse. Of course it eats me up a bit to think of how late to the game I am compared to these other companies who have been published in magazines, blogs, etc. But, it also gives me inspiration because that means enough people love maps and the emotional significance they hold
• Maps encourage curiosity and let us think more globally, peacefully
• I always dreamed of being a good pattern designer, and this medium lets me try out different concepts and be my own art director
• Getting a new order brings me such a thrill-not because of the money, but because it means I've connected with someone, they've seen me and appreciate my vision, and more importantly I get to hear of their wonderful stories of their trips which is truly inspiring!
• I don't have a job. (Hopefully) finding freelance gigs, a PT mindless data collection job, and my projects are what I have. This is my special time to build something that matters.
  
  Today I just started obsessively creating templates and images for some pillows. I believe they are beautiful and I want to keep pushing myself to only create things I truly love to see, instead of something I assume others would want to just fill space in their home. Intentionality is my goal. 

And here's a pattern I designed! I'm really happy with it: 

I want to keep my standards high, surprises often, and quality top notch. Thing is there's SO MUCH I want to do, and I feel SO BEHIND others. But I'm trying to stay focused on why I believe in this project and keep moving forward each day, even if it's a tiny bit. 

And just like in other aspects of life, it's smart to value your differences. Following, or believing you're supposed to be in the same game as others, doesn't get anyone anywhere and that belief comes from fear of failure. I'm trying to figure out how my unique perspective and values can be a greater focus of the work I put out in the world.

For now- the website. There's a whole lot to tackle in a custom website that includes collecting specific information and payment- and currently it's just set up for the custom posters. Eventually I hope to expand and have more pre-designed map products, and have fun with pattern creating like I always dreamed of as a kid. I'm soooo lucky that my partner can make anything possible I think of and is working on it for me. Well, it's part of our goal to have projects together under a new entity, but that will be sometime in the future and saved for another post.

I'm trying to not feel overwhelmed and take it one step at a time. Wish me luck! (So far it's not going the best...........)

Thanks for reading,
Danielle

[DEALING WITH] Design Style Envy

I hate wasting time; I hate wasting energy. There's too much to accomplish! But this morning I trailed off from redesigning my portfolio on a path I don't hear a ton of graphic designers talking about, regrettably consuming my energy and time into a black hole. 

I'm talking about: design style envy. Not lusting over different styles, but the fact designers even have one at all.

After my daily espresso, I searched for inspiration from designers and studios I look up to (Darn Good, Pollen Studios, for example) and realized many of them had something in common- their projects used similar colors, themes, design eras, and textures; they had a style.  And I became incredibly envious!  It seems like they know themselves, like there's confidence in where they belong in life. 

In University we were taught good design meant there were no biases from the designer, a scientific leaning approach. The instructors believed any semblance of personality was 'bad' design. They taught the design process is about the client and listening to every one of their needs before coming up with the (closest to) objective solution specific to them. It would be near impossible if these specific custom solutions happened to have similar color pallets and fonts coming from the same person. Design isn't about ego, it's about solutions. Personality didn't have a place in these solutions.

HOWEVER— now after marveling at these beautiful self-branded portfolios, this principle learned from University is challenged and part of me wants to throw away this mindset all together. These studios consistently create absolutely incredible design and visuals and I wonder if the restraints they set for their branding is actually what lets them create such high quality content. Any designer knows, rules are your best friend! Design principles are always there, is it really horrible to have a general color pallet, pattern and font usage that is consistent amongst projects? 

So I want to work through positives, negatives and reasons for having a style as a designer and figure out if this is something all designers should strive for, or if it serves a purpose bigger than what I understand currently. Lets explore!

When would a style be beneficial?

It can make sense on the client end, there's less risk. You visit the portfolio of one of these designers and you essentially know what to expect. You can anticipate the general aesthetics & quality and decide if the personality of your brand aligns with theirs. 

It also can make sense from the designer's end. How much simpler of a career would it be to have a brand standard .ai file for yourself!? Or at least a generally similar lettering voice? You might put in extra work up front polishing your colors, type, and creating custom patterns lets say. But after that the eyedropper with a little fine tuning would be your best friend. This would be be much more efficient on the designer's end. And you would still deliver exactly what the client is hoping for, at an expedited rate.

Both the client and designer would benefit from this rough assumption of expectations. It saves time by cutting out the initial sketching and presenting of completely different brand concepts.

When would a style hurt you?

Of course it would turn away many people if their needs weren't represented on your portfolio. If versatility isn't showcased, you better hope your specific style is in demand. (But, being selective in jobs could be seen as a milestone of success to some). Thing is, design principles are forever, but the demand for specific aesthetics might be as fickle as fast fashion. Even if your abilities are broad and you are a multifaceted person, if you present yourself as one personality many individuals and businesses that need help with their own vision, not yours will look elsewhere. They need to be listened to, not told.

I've personally gotten feedback from clients that I was hired because my portfolio showed versatility. This is especially beneficial if you enjoy variety in your day. For me it is not due to desperation that I want to be open to all types of work, I genuinely enjoy variety and the element of surprise. (And need to keep reminding myself of this as I marvel at others' beautiful self-branded portfolios!)
 

How might long term life goals relate to a style?

It's important to consider your long term goals for your (design?) career, because accommodating potential clients might not even be important to you. Self-awareness is key in your career and lifestyle. 

Do you hope to sustain variety in your work and continue to help entrepreneurs (and/or businesses through working at design firms) reach success, without much credit needed? Then maybe you have a passion for the objective design process and should keep a plethora of variety in your work so you can stay open to any opportunities that come your way. If you want to work at a design firm or marketing company, versatility is important. Here the client's unique needs are the focus and there's extensive research plotting that most objective solution to design, as I was taught at University. It definitely has a need and purpose and you are able to create designs completely custom and one-of-a-kind. As long as you are listening to their goals, you will help design meaningful solutions for their brands that impact many.

Do you hope to eventually utilize your years of experience and quality design examples to own your self-created educational content? Maybe start speaking about design and leading others? Then finding the sweet spot of both branding yourself but also showing your versatility should be your pursuit. And I think this is where the designers I was looking at this morning fall into, so it makes sense now. To be a leader you need both a personal brand that expresses who you truly are and content to prove you practice the design principles you preach. It's possible to get in trouble with a fickle identity that needs to change every few years to stay with the times, but I do believe if you stay true to who you really are at the core, and you use versatile enough elements you can do this successfully. If you are showing your true colors (literally) then your brand will have resonance and stability for years to come.

Do you hope to step away from client work all together and dive into the entrepreneurship sector, developing your own companies and entities as a source of income? Then it would make sense to spend efforts on your brand and voice, in order to build credibility as part of a wholistic representation of your values and work. But in this case the value of your portfolio to your lifestyle would be more of a conversation piece and less of what defines your future work. It would be where you have connecting URLS to your own projects that live in their own space. Maybe if you have income from other business pursuits you've created yourself, your portfolio could be more of a fun place to show your art and you can take more risks.

Do you want to step away from the design process and focus more on how to utilize your illustration skills and self-expression in conjunction with the design world? Then absolutely try to narrow in on your primary illustration skills and voice you want to be sought out for. It might take some time to figure out what sort of creative expressions can be consistent enough and work best in conjunction with brands, but if you go this route companies would seek you out for your unique personality, which would feel rewarding I imagine. Of course in this scenario you would still be in the business world, not at the end of the artistic self expression spectrum, optimizing your skills and creativity for compensation from brands rather than being an artist tucked away in a studio expressing your political passions. Having large influential brands hire you for your skills could feel validating, though indeed you can choose to focus on editorial content, or focus solely on small businesses, for your illustrative expressions if you don't like the idea of appeasing to large consumer brands! 

In conclusion

There's never going to be a blanket 'right' way to be for your specific path, and worrying about or comparing your portfolio to others with different long term goals than you is a waste of time and energy. It's not so bad to have a style in how you present your work, and can be very beneficial to you, as long as it aligns with the short and long term goals you have set for yourself, which is not going to be consistent with everyone no matter how pretty or self-aware that other portfolio looks.

There's nothing wrong to have those feelings of inadequacy or lust when seeing other portfolios, just like it isn't wrong to have those feelings about a beautiful person. It's perfectly natural and timeless to feel envy, what matters is how we act with these feelings. We can face our feelings head on to analyze what this means for our next steps. It's not feeling happy or stable that motivates us to create, contrarily often it is those feelings of inadequacy that really drives us to move forward. (I recently read a great article where Jessica Walsh admits to something similar.) In an uncomfortable way, we have to embrace these feelings.

It all boils down to looking inward. What do you find important? What are your short term goals? What are your long term goals to work toward? 

The primary lesson I've learned is how extremely important it is to understand the difference in presenting yourself as an illustrator/artist vs. designer. Some of the 'designers' I was going to share earlier I realized were actually primarily illustrators, so of course they will have a more consistent personality in their content. When you identify towards an artist, there's space for your personality and expression. When you identify on the other end of the spectrum as an unbiased designer, you will take a more scientific objective approach to your work. Awareness of this spectrum is essential. Maybe it's a good time to consider if you want to be considered more of an illustrator/artist rather than designer. It boils down to who you are at the core and where you belong.

For therapeutic motivations I'll try to reach a personal conclusion to avoid wandering into this time and energy black hole again. To be honest, I have a general idea of my long term goals but I'm still trying to figure that out. For now, I mostly love the freelance lifestyle having variety and getting a rush working directly with entrepreneurs making their ideas come to life and legitimacy with a solid brand. But I connect with them because I also have the entrepreneurial spirit myself, and would love to create products that help people. I'd also like to design a way to earn and direct capital past my myopic point of views and towards important global issues, like climate change, social justice, and peace.

The philosophical connection in design thinking is what keeps me engaged. I can see logically why showing versatility is important, but might not be able to get over the existential arguments for it. After all, if we aren't introducing our unique view points and expressions into the world, what exists from us? Are we merely just deduced down to a tool to get from point A to B? Having at least some loose style is what helps the design world move forward in a way.

So— for now I will keep a variety of styles on my portfolio, though I do think adding a page to show more illustrations and patterns I've created would be important to me to scratch the artistic expression/existential itch. I think some personal branding is important to seam your site together, but for me I don't plan on being a public speaker anytime soon* (*ever) so concentrating on my personal brand doesn't need to be a huge time and energy focus right now. I want to be open to a variety of projects and perhaps while a designer builds their career from branding others with that objective design process, it eventually feels natural and organic to see real value in treating yourself as your own client. [meta] Reaching that level of self awareness without forcing it does sound philosophically appealing, and maybe it's best to relax and let the fruition of this need see its time as I'm still extending my creativity and figuring out who I am at the core. (Right now I just feel confusion and a bit of frustration from my consistent inconsistency!)

Writing this all out really helped me. I'm obviously not a teacher or leader, I just hope to work through my issues publicly to maybe relate to others so we can figure this design thing out together!

If you have any comments or thoughts on the topic I'd love to hear from you! Have you had similar issues with your identity? Do you feel there's another way to see it? I'm all ears.

Thanks for reading,
Danielle

[Hello World] 16 lessons from living in Rome, Italy (so far)

Hello world, welcome to my first blog post. I wanted to start collecting my (many) thoughts from experiences with design, traveling, and maybe whatever else comes up. 

If you know me, you know I'm a huge fan of notebooks. Blank notebooks, notebooks with lines, notebooks with preprinted to-do categories. If I'm surrounded by ways to write, sketch, work through and come up with new thoughts, I feel at ease. Like anything is possible.

However, scribbles on pages can be vulnerable. They can be lost, stolen, dunked in water, set on fire, set in jello, you name it. So here's the beginning of a digital notebook. The goal is to be organized, have tags, images, memories, be searchable-! I'm quite excited. 

You also may know my tendency to write accidental novels when explaining something. *face palm* So another goal of this blog is to try to improve my writing skills and be more intentional and clever with words. Wish me luck.

On that note, to kick off this new platform I want to share some lessons learned after living here in Rome for the first 4 months (collectively).  It might be educational to some, helpful to others, and probably a bit amusing to revisit in a year.

16 Lessons from Living in Rome:

1. The pizza really is amazing, and make sure to ask for it "calda." IMO hot pizza is best pizza.
    

2. You will find yourself no more than 3 blocks from a pizzeria or bar at any given moment.
    

3. A "Bar" isn't what you might assume. Think coffee & pastries as a focus rather than desperation & noise.
    

4. It's best to assume no one you interact with speaks English, learn a few words first to get by.  (And be pleasantly surprised when you're wrong)
    

5. When checking out, "Busta?" = Do you want a bag? while, "Basta?" = Is that everything? (It makes people confused if you answer the latter with "no" and an assuring smile + long pause.)
    

6. If going out in the world to complete a task, just assume you will encounter an obstacle. (maybe it's national holiday you hadn't heard of? Maybe ALL transportation is on strike? Maybe the office closes every Tuesday from 11am to 4pm?)
    

7. Italians can be quite friendly and strike up conversation at stores, which makes you feel guilty if you have to tell them you don't speak much Italian. (So get on that!)
    

8. If at the main train station Termini, cling to your phone with padlocks to ensure you keep it.
    

9. The touristy spots are pristine, but if you go past these areas in the city you may find billowing trash and what happens when most dog owners don't clean up after their furry friends on the sidewalk. (Watch where you step.) But there's enough beauty to balance it out.
    

10. If you know the basics of Spanish and French, you'll be surprised with how much Italian you understand. 
     

11. Crushed tomatoes are best purchased in glass jars.
     

12. Making Italian pasta sauce isn't complicated. Simply heat olive oil and add salt + (quality) crushed tomatoes. Stir once and simmer until the oil integrates with the tomato, maybe 10-15 min. 
     

13. A bottle of quality local wine can be under 2.5 USD. That doesn't mean you need to buy wine every chance you get.
     

14. There is a popular clothing brand here with giant letters, "PYREX." It is not the Corning tupperware containers, though those containers are dope so I want one of these t-shirts for this reason.

15. You might see something very ornate and old next to something very tacky and new.

16. Rome is a never ending source of beauty, history, colors, botanics, cats, friendliness, pastries, fresh produce, cheap wine, and therefore inspiration! So appreciate every day; take time to step away from the computer to be aware of the environment and just exist in it.

Maybe in a year from now this list will be different; maybe it will have significant edits. Time will tell. In the meantime I hope to spend the time ahead in awareness and appreciation of where I am. It's my first time living in a different country, a long-time life goal of mine. Wish me luck.

If anyone has suggestions, questions, comments, etc. don't hesitate to reach out! 

Below are some more photos from life here.

Thanks for reading,
Danielle

The view from our first bedroom in Re Di Roma. Since we've moved to a different neighborhood.

Near the center of town. Taken from the "Little Train."

Some buildings are old, some are new and freshly painted.

Pastries and tea break. We work a LOT so we try to take our health breaks seriously. :)

Wisteria flowers are in bloom here for a week! So magical.