Coffee, the Office, Portfolios and a Violinist

Been busy for the last few days, running around town, cleaning up the office, and doing what our clients pay us to do.

Coffee on Friday was a lot of fun. Had a pretty sizable group, which made it difficult to capture all the conversations going on. So pics and names will have to suffice… you can just imagine all the smart stuff these people were saying.

from left… Geoffrey, David and Noel…

…Larry, James and Geoffrey…

Shaun, Jessie and Larry.

Hope everyone had a nice time. No fistfights broke out, but I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.

After that, it was on to the office.

Busted out the vacuum and cleaned the place up… it looks practically habitable. We hope to have an official open house in May, where we’ll show off our sustainability and recycling skills by displaying all the stuff we reused from what was in the space originally. The new address is 1415 SE 8th, so if you happen to be in the area, feel free to stop by, grab a book off the shelf, and make yourself comfortable on the couch. Well, maybe call first since our beverage service is still somewhat limited. We may need to take you on a field trip across the street to the Lucky Lab.

On Saturday, David and I participated in the AIGA student portfolio day. I met a couple people who went back to school to do design, which I find admirable… realizing your passion and following it as opposed to taking what might be the easy way out.

David also sat on a panel, answering questions for students coming out of school. That’s David on the far right of the photo below (yeah, it’s blurry… but it was the best of the bunch so deal with it).

Also on the panel (from left) were Mike Sheen from Coates-Kokes, Marc Anteparra-Naujock from Quango, and (not pictured because she was blocked by someone’s head in front of me) Lynette Xanders from Wild Alchemy.

For me, it was interesting to hear David talk about Substance, which made me incredibly proud of our company. I think he gave some great insights and advice (which he can expound upon in his own blog posting…). And Barry Wall, the moderator, mentioned our blog, so if you’re coming here from that mention, welcome.

I think the audience enjoyed the panel, as everyone had a slightly different perspective. I think the overall theme was to represent yourself in an authentic way, don’t try to make your presentation gimmicky, and have confidence in yourself. It’s hard to differentiate yourself from all the other recent grads looking for jobs, who took the same portfolio classes and did the same projects. One way to do it is by being your own personality. You might not be a fit for every agency. That’s a good thing. If you’re aiming to be everything to everyone, you probably won’t stand out to anyone. Better to have people love you or hate you than not care at all (as long as they all don’t hate you).

People in the audience probably took better notes than me, though.

On a final note, there’s a great article in the Washington Post about a world-class violinist playing in the D.C. subway. And hardly anyone noticed.

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Talks about the idea of “framing,” which is a huge challenge for those of us doing work online. How do you frame an experience when you’re not sure how it’s set up? But that’s for another post.p.s. I haven’t forgotten about the “why and how” of Campfire agencies. I’m just trying to organize all my thoughts into something that makes sense. Will hopefully have that done next week.