christmas frenzy

the holiday season is here! which of course means a ton to get done before my departure back to the states [which is why this has been a bit neglected since london!] this week my dad and my brother zac came to visit. they had a fabulous time skiing in zermatt this week, and today the three of us are off to munich!

at work we have been working hard to get everything we can completed before the new year, and on top of that i have begun to play around with my own portfolio and resume stuff to get ready for my job search. i had my first experience setting up a website all by myself! there are a toooooon of glitches still, but for a first attempt without ay real training or knowledge it's not too shabby.. check it out. www.ashleyreinstein.com [creative i know!]

but i am definitely going to have to get back to keeping this more updated!

from london, with love.

thursday jen and i wake up early. make sure our bags are packed [ready to go..] and then we pop off to work to make sure we have everything ready on time. after a restless day at the office were off to london town! we get to zurich and were right on time.. we rush through the ticket check point [where they scan your ticket to make sure your all set] and then we find our gate number and head to the passport check and then as were unloading onto the security dock the attendant [in very broken english] informs us that our flight to london city is canceled. what?? it can't be! oh but it was. we got up to the transfers desk and literally hundreds of people are standing around. luckily the fifa people were alll in zurich attempting to fly as well! after over 3 hours and 45 minutes in line [the men behind us informed us of this as we rounded the final bend in the queue] we had successfully made a nice handful of friends, read a hefty portion of my book [thank you lori it is sooo gooood!], and crocheted two headbands and numerous attempts at flowers. one of our new friends [dianna] used to knit/crochet, but hadn't done so in over 20 years, but her attempt at a flower was still stunning and it now resides on the hat that jen made me. when we get to the counter we cheerfully greet the teller [who has the most ridiculous hair style i have ever seen] as we have been doing all evening, and i cannot lie, we were sort of a hit. once they realized we didn't want to yell at them for snowing in england they just wanted to chatter about the crazy fifa-ers and the snow and yaddah yaddah.. well this guy wanted nothing to do with our happiness. he gives us a hotel brochure and then was very rude when we asked which bus we were supposed to be taking to which hotel [as if there is only one bus and one hotel near the zurich airport. false.] well we got put up in the hilton. it. was.like.heaven. that teller really did love us, he put us up in the 'relaxation suite' and very nicely showed us the fantastic free layover buffet they had set up.. amazing chick in a mushroom sauce, swedish meatballs to die for, these stuffing patties that went great with both sauces, rice, veggies, salad, fruit, free wine, beer, tea and water. we had a little party at the hilton until the waiter made it clear he was exhausted and our friends [who all happened to be older than us] had to make their way to bed. our room was fantastic and i will probably never forget the pillows. or the shower. it was as perfect as perfect gets!

our friday flight didn't leave until 3:30 to munich so we got to sleep in.. when we got to the provided breakfast buffet [also realllllly yummy] one of our friends [who has on this super crazy bling bling hat] told us that the guy behind him didn't get the hotel voucher because they had run out! then the ballerina from wimbledon told us that they almost didn't have a room for her when we were checking in the previous night! eeek! so we all go to the airport, fly to munich and then hop a plane to london city [this flight we sat with a personal assistant, about our age, very friendly who helped us with the tube vs. dlr and whatnot] and finally we had done it. we arrived in london! it was a bit late at this point so we checked into the hostel and headed to meet a friend of mine from college, elizabeth. unfortunately the tube trains kept getting delayed because of the ice and we arrived nine minutes late. and our lack of phone really screwed us up and we ended up stalking the employee entrance. we called her cell a few time using an officers phone [he had a k9.. pretty cool] and around 11 he went in to check and ask security where she was. but security had left, so we found this amazing lebanese restaurant [i have been craving some hummus!] and went to town! it was the best hummus i have ever had. i am certain of it. so we caught the last train from the center of the city and headed to the hostel. unfortunately we missed the very last leg of our journey and had to figure out the creepy minicab service that is provided for a very cheap sum. it turns out our hostel has a pretty happening bar jsut below it, and right next door! but we were exhausted and headed up to our room to crash.

we woke up early on saturday because we had big plans: first the tower of london, then meeting an old neighbor of mine for a bite to eat, and portobello road market. so we totter off to the tower and end up playing around for over three hours. it was like heaven for me. i surely could have stayed all day and not gotten bored! first we explored a bit before a tour began. we went up into the medieval section where they literally had re-constructed the way it originally looked. it was absolutely amazing the way they took the patterns from the leftover statues and effigies! it wound us through the rooms in the outer wall until we came out to an amazing view of the tower bridge!

by this time our tour was going to begin so we hurried off to meet the yeoman warder aka beefeater. these men [and one woman] have been serving england for basically a million years[over 20 which is basically a million!] and are awarded for their service by giving tours of the tower, and also residing there! after our enthusiastic 'interactive' tour with our beefeater [just so great!] we checked out the tower than held prisoners. it had the most amazing and intricate graffiti i have seen. the wall was literally carved into inches revealing family crests and favorite sayings. then we went to the white tower [the tallest, central one] to see the armour through the ages exhibit they had going. at the top floor [where the royal quarters were!] they had an interactive how-to-use-the-weapons-you've-been-staring-at exhibit. jen did quite well with her jousting attempt! by this time it was noon, and we were to meet art [the neighbor] at two, so we hurried to the old armory to check out the crown jewels. one jewel on one scepter was 530 carats. it looked fake. only the vault we were in sort of gave away the fact that it was REAL! fantastic! when we finally exited the jewel house it was almost two and so we hopped off [in fantastic moods] to the london bridge to meet art at barrowboy & banker and have a beer before we hit up burough market and grabbed the most delicious ostrich steak sandwich [with freshly made mustard and cranberry sauce]. after this we attempted to get to portobello road, but it was a bit late so art went to meet up with a friend and jen and i headed off to kings cross station to meet elizabeth and daryl. it was so great to see them again! we took the tube to daryl's friend millers' apartment in camden and picked up some sam's chicken and a bottle of wine [being good house guests of course] on the way. when we got there jen and millers quickly discovered their mutual obsession with deadmau5 and the evening took a great turn form there. since the tubes close at 12-1am we decided early that since we were having such a good time that we were going to stay in camden for the night. we went to a recording studio that millers flatmate owns and hung out with them, before heading down to a ridiculous club called 'egg'! after our eggy experience we hunted for pizza but unfortunately came up short and headed back to the flat in defeat [all relative of course].

sunday morning we were going to attempt to make it out to stonehenge, but since its far away, and our new brit friends had nothing ecstatic to say about it we decided to do the city sites [especially since jen hadn't seen the big stuff yet] first we went to trafalgar square and saw the amazing statues that are scattered about the area.

every year the citizens of olso gift a huge christmas tree to london and it was stunning, as well as a very cool tradition to learn about. then we decided that we needed some oriental food [since switzerland lacks it] and we walked through piccadilly circus, leister's square, and covent gardens to the really tasty restaurant called wanamama, which jen and i were immediately addicted to! then we kept walking across the thames [i believe on the millenium brudge] and to another market near the london eye, then across the next bridge to big ben, westminster, and the houses of parliment. at this point it was getting late and we needed to go back to camden to gather our belongings [from the previous days shopping when we were on our way to meet elizabeth and daryl] so we hopped a black cab to buckingham palace, caught the end of the guards switching out, and went back to camden. from there we headed back to leister's square to meet art at a mexican restaurant [with awful margaritas unfortunately] that was right next to the odeon that we were going to see harry potter in [where the premiere was]. dinner was fabulous and we had an awesome time before skipping over to see harry! the movie [which we both had low expectations for, being avid book readers] blew our minds, especially since the cast interviews were in front of the building we were in, and the scenes in the movie were literally around the corner. it was an amazing experience that i am sure jen and i will always look back on fondly! lastly we headed back to our hostel to pack and get ready to leave our new favorite city.

we arrived at the airport at 7 for our 8:30 flight to a departure board informing us of our flights cancellation. it was like a nightmare. luckily the line went quickly, and the man who helped us was very kind. he booked us on the earliest flight to zurich. a 3:30pm out of heathrow [an hour and a half away, but it was only 10 so we had time]. they gave us a cab [the cool black ones!] and we went to heathrow with two guys around our age, one working and living in basel and the other in geneva. the guy going to geneva was a pretty cool guy, he was reading a coben harlan book [in french!] and so we chatted about which ones we had read and which are must reads. i believe the one he recommended is already on my amazon wishlist! we dropped him off and headed into heathrow. we were departing from terminal five, which seemed to be the large one according to the maps. it was basically mall with a few terminals to let you leave the country. we were starving because by now it was noon [we should have been on our way from st. gallen to steigbach at this point] and we were starving. luckily a wagamama was standing right in front of us! so we went in to drink some more fantabulous juice and try a few more dishes.. all were amazing of course! then we went to find our gate. which naturally isn't posted hours before your flight leaves. so we found a computer station to let work know we were stranded. the keyboard of course had no spacebar so all_of_our_communication_was_like_this. quite frustrating! then we did a bit of shopping, picked up a few goodies and used our meal vouchers to get some lunch/dinner for the flight.

to sum up our experience... we basically had the worst traveling luck we could have had, that was awful, but we got through it. the amazing time and new friends we made definitely made up for the poor flight situations, and both zurich and london have very nice airports. at this point the only london airport i have not visited is standsted, so i will have to try to fit that in for my next trip!

thank you karma for allowing us to have such an amazing time!

major apologies...

it's true, i have been seriously neglecting this poor blog! after our fabulous thanksgiving thursday we had an eventful weekend. on friday night we took it easy [not sleeping can be rough] and on saturday jen and chris went shopping in st. gallen while i hunkered down and prepared for the next steps to enter the real world.. when they got back we went to the gais christmas markt which was absolutely amazing! i got most of my gifts there, which i think is really awesome and special because it was literally outside my window and they're the crafts of the people in the town we live in! that night we went to st. gallen to see our swiss fruendies before our little trip on sunday.. sunday we went to luzern. it was super adorable! the first thing we did was to go check out the rosengart collection...

matisse

after we had our minds blown by the amazing works of picasso, matisse, miró, and monet we took a stroll around the city. there was an awesome bridge [the chapel bridge] that burnt down in the early 1990s and they spent a bunch of money restoring it, but it wasn't 100% completed so some of the wood is still charred black. its amazing how well it was restored! [check out my facebook album to see all the pics!]

 after our stroll through the bridge we went to a very tasty brewery for dinner and got greattttt food! after our great food/dessert/fresh brewed beer we stumbled on a crazy parade that was going on that evening. there were groups of people with these whips that made some crazy cracking noises in the air, then large groups of men with giant bells came through the street and finally two santa clauses! [videos on the book!]

this week has been pretty crazy as well! while jen and i are preparing for our london adventure i am taking my real world steps! last night i got my domain name and hosting set up so that next week i can launch ashleyreinstein.com! a woot a wooooot!

thanksgiving [swiss style]

last night we chowed down on some raclette for thanksgiving. because thanksgiving is not celebrated here [which i was asked more than once how the day was celebrated in switzy!]lori and jon decided to cook us a traditional swiss dinner. it was amazing! i thought i loved fondue, but raclette may have taken the cake on my favorite swiss dish. partially because there was garlic cheese. it's like combining my two favorite things and saying 'hey, go pour this on your favorite starch'. it is literally a thick slice of cheese that is heated in these little trays [everyone gets one tray] until it bubbles and then it is scraped off onto a boiled potato that you can slice, mash, add meat [traditionally horse, but they got just normal thinly sliced beef for us], pickles, pickled onions, spices, anything you want! after stuffing ourselves on the fabulous food steffan took us home and we were down for the count!

today at work [being that christmas officially starts the day after thanksgiving] i got to make a few versions of christmas cards for one of our clients! they wanted their heads to appear in the christmas ornaments, so i created two versions. one that was pretty straightforward and what they had asked for, and my own take that is a little more cheerful [and i think americanized] and animated. i hope they enjoy both and i cannot wait to see which they choose!

the card on the left is the original one they requested, and the card on the right is the one that i came up with as am alternative [but i thought the wreaths were similar to ornaments since they both hang!] i also get to start working on a new project for rare disease day, creating their fliers/posters that will be used to attract visitors and build the brand of the event. definitely looking forward to working on that project. christmas rush come and get us!!

st.gallen

the ad train is moving once again! only this time they have decided that they want a bunch of professors without head shots to be silhouetted against the white background! luckily my photoshop skills are not too rusty and i have been able to put some heads on some bodies and make them fairly believable [oh did i mention these are being printed on friday and still have to be approved?]

hopefully we can get this ad and the next wrapped up and off to print perfect and as soon as possible!

the coldest weekend of my life!

this weekend we took basically the coolest adventure known to any of us. first we popped into interlaken, to check out junfrau [the virgin] and stayed at this pretty awesome hostel called balmers. it was adorable and had some pretty fun nightlife going on.. jen, chris and i [being our charming selves] naturally made friends as soon as we arrived.

after a fun evening of interlaken fun we  headed out to zermatt to meet up with jen's friends jess and dac.  zermatt was absolutely gorgeous. everyone there was all bundled up, and rightly so, it was freeeezing! once we found our hostel we set out for fondue, but noone was serving it until dinner, so we went to this restaurant that some girls at the hostel recommended and had some snackage, then we shopped around a bit and returned to the hostel so we could check in. after we unloaded and changed into more layers of clothing out we went for dinner! [since we had been craving fondue for hours at this point] we found a great place that had awesome fondue and had a tremendously long and filling dinner. on the way back we stopped by a cute little pub that some people from the hostel had told us about and had a beer with them before deciding that we needed a good nights sleep to get up early to see the ice palace!

we all got up before 8 to get ready and check out. then it was go time. we first got our tickets to the halfway point because it was too windy at the very top to ascend. then as son as we turn around the board lights up green and we can now go to the top top [which is where the palace it]. first we jump into these tiny moving pods that hold about six people and they sway as the take you up the mountain. i won't lie. i was terrified. next came a larger car that held a ton of people and their skis. this one was the car that was originally closed. it was freaky but took us basically to the top of the world! we first checked out the ice palace, you take an elevator down and it opens up into a tunnel in the ice. ridiculous. then we walked around the different sections.. this little kitchen table area, the chandelier,  the buddah, what appeared to be a nativity scene, and a very awkward assortment of people, animals, and frozen flowers that has plaques about glacier bugs and how they lived and grew. it was very interesting and pretty amazing. we then went to warm up in the gift shop at the top. it had a few of the ticket items we had been wanting but for cheaper! go figure. so after jen made a pretty awesome purchase we decided to head to the top. we took and elevator up and opened into white. all white. we were inside a cloud. after rushing up the stairs through the coldest wind imaginable [my face and ears are cold just thinking about it!] we reached the very top! we were equal with the top of the clouds, which blew my mind, and there was a giant crucifix and a plaque with some info about the peak. once we had take enough awesome photos we scurried down into the relative "warmth" of the inside of the mountain.

just the matterhorn making an appearance!

 
by this time it was after noon and we had to start getting ready to head back home, so off we headed in the ski lifts down the mountain and into thicker air and "warmth". we headed home and attempted to be productive but really all we did was make some dinner and watch glee! it was basically an amazing weekend :)

check out all my photos!

eighty whattt

so the last two days have been consumed by st.gallen! there was originally a catalog, made up of about 8-10 brochures called sol... it has transformed to slf and now sfl and contains 14 brochures. unfortunately the brochures are all just a bit different and needed to be completely re-layed out. it was a bit hectic, but it looks pretty print-fab now! hopefully monday it will all go off without a hitch and print consistent and well!

tonight after work we are going to interlaken, hanging out for the night and checking out the area in the morning, then jumping train to visp to meet jen's friends jess and dac and heading to zermatt to check out the matterhorn! we are pretty pumped about the experience so make sure to check back on sunday for photos and stories!

the falken

so the card actually turned out pretty well.. the combination of jen and i working on it got rave reviews from the client! they actually thought we had forgotten the additions! yay us!

i think it is still beign worked on, but i have to begin fixing up an 80 page brochure for print monday!

last night after a nice long day at work and the gym jen and i met chris at the falken for some pre-made dinner and drinks... we split a pizza, gnocchi, and lasagna and had a few  glasses of vino with our apps and dinner... then dessert came fresh glace [gelato, but i swear better!] with a cookie. it was great! the waiter spoke basically every language in the book except english, and was very amused at our attempt to learn snippets of different languages. to show his approval at our poor foreign language skills he brought us over a surprise.. straight amaretto! after our little dessert drink we all retired upstairs and just crashed for the night... so appealing!

photoshop madness!

morgan and i have been quite amused today. we have been attempting to create a photo of a group of st.gallen teachers for a 'thank you' card of some sort. the assignment was simple.. to throw a few people into the photo... either by floating ovals of their heads off tot he side, or by attempting to add them into the image [and make them look natural of course]

as you can see it was pretty hilarious...

color addict

so in keeping with my addiction to anything to do with color i have found something that i find perfectly amusing for any time a splash of color is needed! it is the color hunter. you type in what sort of colors you want to appear and anywhere from one to 100 pages of possible palettes show up! it gives you five colors and an image.. pretty fun if you ask me! yesterday we went over the designs we began for sgad and discussed what direction we wanted to go in.. check out my designs!

after our meeting we decided on a few different directions to go in... check back later for those designs!

fondue part two!

today was absolutely beautiful. after jen and i hit up the gym to fulfill some project pretty time we literally just basked in the sun at the train station. it was great! we got back and showered and then sporting some of my awesome new salvation purchases i went to go hang out int he dorfplatz on a bench that the sun was just beating down on! people kept starring at my sandaled feet, but i was so close to home and it was seriously gorgeous out so i couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang around without shoes!

 

after jen joined my reading session on the bench we went inside to find chris as she finished up her showering and the three of us headed off into the natural world of switzerland! the walk to appenzell was absolutely gorgeous. it is ridiculous that we get to just live and experience this all!

when we got to the city it was already dark, but that was fine, we were on a mission. fondue. part two. when we found an open restaurant with the fondue poster outside we jumped on the opportunity and sat in the non-smoking section... then the fun began!

we ordered a double order [since we were three hungry girls] and a glass of weine each. a small basket of bread came, which made us nervous at first, but we then discovered that they would continue to give us more until our käse was gone! this pot [which was decorated, just like the appenzell-wear you can see above] was just alive with boiling cheese! the chef came out and brought it to us and then continued to continuously check on us to make sure we were enjoying it. on one of these occasions he decided to being us each a shot glass full of schnapps [as if the weine and tooon of alcohol in the cheese weren't enough!]  to dip the bread in before we put it in the cheese. it was a very interesting taste. i wasn't really feeling it so chris was kind enough to finish my portion for me! my all-time favorite part of the fondue [and i think chris' as well] is scrapping off the well-done bits at the bottom of the pan. fantastical!! then we walked to the train station to hop the last train back and the machine wouldn't let us purchase our tickets! it literally would not accept any money! so the conductor ended up sticking his head out the window and telling us to just hop on anyway! so a quick free ride to gais and we were home sweet home with bellies full of hot melty cheese.. and to top things off lori promised to teach us how to make it so that when we go home the tradition can continue!

the day of the phoenix.

this morning jen and i woke up early to hit up the denner [so we don't starve tomorrow] and then we took the early train to st. gallen to check out the heils armee [salvation army] which happens to be out all-time favorite store. there were some pretty awesome purchases that took place. it was fantastical! so then after chris got her half tax card we decided to head out to munich. now the trains are under construction [which noone informed us of] so we ended up taking some bus when this couple took pity on us and told us we had to get off the train! so we end up in lindau. g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s.

it was completely unreal. more photos to come in the near future. just amazing! so after hangin out we went to munich, where the trains were set up like harry potter [the movie is playing here but only in german, and we took some staged wand fighting photos in the cabin].we met some cool people on the train and finalllly got to munchen! yaaaay! it was pretty awesome. we headed for the hofbräuhaus to get some maß and schnitzel. this large group of older women sat down at our table, and it turns out they have been friends for twenty years, were in a bowling league together, and they take day trips to places like munich [they're from heidelberg, pretty awesome in the printing world!] after they left some other people sat down, but they were just not as friendly. after our fantastical meal we decided to hop the early train just in case to be safe. when we got onto the train we met three awesome girls from füssen who taught us some hilarious little german phrases! then we met raphi who was pretty awesome as well! after our friends departed we realized one of the girls left all her new h&m purchases, so we're hoping to find her so we can return her clothes!

 when we got to lindau we checked the schedule. it was quite a shock to us that because of earlier construction all the schedules were crazy and messed up. we were stuck in lindau for the night because there were only five trains from lindau: one at 10am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm. so we learn about a hostel that is clean and cheap and hop a taxi to go check it out [keep in mind it is about 11pm at this point]. in the cab we met some very cool people, eddie and sven. eddie told us he hadn't spoken english in about five years. it was very fun talking to him, he said we were the first americans he had ever met! so we get to this hostel and it's closed, we cannot get anyone's attention inside. so we start getting nervous, meanwhile chris talks to the cabbie and he tells us he will drive us back to st. gallen for fifty euros! which seemed like a fabulous idea to us...

so he had one more group of people to pick up and drive before he could take us so he drops off eddie and sven at a place that looks creepily like bar that has adult entertainment inside. our driver tells us there are seven people in his next load and so we need to wait at the bar. he could tell we were very freaked out and went to talk to the police officers to tell them we were uncomfortable and to take care of us. so he pulls away and the one officer comes and basically escorts us into this bar. we are basically having heart attacks thinking this is a topless establishment. turns out. it's just a super cool bar having a rocking 90s night! great music [understatement] and hanging out with our new friends was pretty awesome. plus i ordered a coca-cola and it came in an old-school glass bottle [which i received a euro for when it was returned!] and that made me feel like it was pretty awesome. so as we were singing spice girls and chatting with our new friends we decided that this potentially terrifying/stranded evening turned into a fabulous evening! our cabbie came back in half an hour [as promised] and off we drove to st. gallen! through germany and austria and right to the city. the was telling us that he lives in germany on a farm, but doesn't have any animals because he has three children and a dog, which were a handful themselves. his oldest daughter was our age, so i think when we had told him how old we were in the beginning he must have compared us with her and proceeded in a fatherly way [phew!]. once we were there we knew how to get home, which took a while but was ultimately quicker that it usually is. overall everything from the salvation army to the 90s night was a super great experience! anything that seemed daunting or unpreferable at first, soon became perfect, just like a phoenix raises from the ashes!

busy busy friday

so today i have worked on a littttle bit of everything [which is superfab of course] first was some st.gallen stuff, then aachen, then some more st.gallen, and now i am moving back onto the logos i started playing with yesterday. logo exploration [or any exploring in general] is the bomb. it really let's you discover new things as a designer. this sgad logo needs to portray the right message to the viewer, as does the text that accompanies it, so i was checking out the emotions that are associated with different fonts and discovered fontscape. not a super professional resource, but still very interesting and helpful! i checked out 'dependable', 'passionate', and 'dynamic' for ideas for the sgad logo font. the designs are very still work-in-progress, but jen, chris and i are sure to come up with something pretty awesome!

so today i am working on sgad [schweizerische gesellschaft für angst und depression] designs. this entails searching through their current site and information, and finding a way to convey the correct information through a logo and overall brand. to begin i decided to check out color theories, which there are a million of, naturally, but color is a major part of designs and needs to be addressed in the early stages, so that the logo and its colors can be coherent. in doing my research i have come across so many crazy website about colors, yoga, feng shui, and rgb/cmyk. so far my favorite site has been color worqx.  i think they have a great and easy site to navigate, plus some fun and helpful information! i love the color combination section that clearly shows you about relationships between colors.

also i enjoyed the palette picker... these are always fun to play around with to see what combinations you can create!

still pretty pumped

even though it's a bit obsolete at this point seeing as the day happened, i'm still pretty excited that i hit the 1111 mark! :) supa fuuuun

ashley.m.reinstein: 1111: "for those of you who know me, i am sort of into the whole coincidental number thing.. 627 [for my birthday!], 111, 1111, 1234 [for obvious r..."

week seven...

talk about a busy day. icon was bumping from morning to night! between aachen and a few st. gallen corrections, it's a good thing the new designer chris got here to take over the sigma trifold i had been working on! aachen [allllll those earlier posts!] conducts aluminum seminars/courses [okay i'm not 100% sure because it is all in german!] that we began to design the little bochure/flier that will be passed out to inform potential students on the happenings...

these are the two options that went out to the client this evening.. looking forward to getting their feedback and seeing what parts the liked and what parts they want to change. the major difference in the two designs is the schedule that is the program. it has come a long way from how it was originally set up, but i think with maybe a few more minds to look at it and comment it can become even better!

delicious dippage

today we managed to only miss the train twice.. quite a feat for us. when we finally made it to st. gallen we hopped the first train to zurich! on the way it naturally started raining. the one type of weather we hadn't planned on. so we get there and get lost [shocking i know, seeing as we are both navigational geniuses] and then have to go back and re-navigate to the city. the main boulevard was pretty awesome. especially since there were christmas decorations up already! also very cool was all the swans!

for some reason i have never really thought about swans in the wild so it surprised me to see them swimming around the river [in the cold rain] like it was normal. they were pretty awesome either way. we walked around and saw churches, jen bought a cool watch [that is currently not working] and then heaven happened. in the form of fondue.

now this was my first experience with fondue. we started off with some amazing salads and fabulous garlic bread. then the grand finale came. a massive basket of bread cubes and this yummy little pot of boiling cheeses/cherry brandy. we also got a side of pears to mix up the tastes a little. it was freaking amazing and i would eat it everyday if it was available to me! i want more soooo bad! zurich was basically awesome. i reallly want to go back when the weather isn't blah.. they had mexican restaurants, asian take-away places and of course lots of italian! next time we will have to try some of the other places in the old towne!

swiss addictions

this weekend jen and i did some hanging out with our new swiss freunde.. they met us at the bahnhof and we walked to this bar that had a bunch of music videos playing on the screens. it was pretty cool. our work friend anina [who we have dubbed neenster] met us, but couldn't come in because she was too young. that was sad, but she didn't work this week so we were glad we got to see her a bit! after we had enough of that bar the group trouped over to the bierhof, the wonderful bar from last weekend! for some reason this particular establishment does a great job at getting the best of jen and i. all of a sudden it was 3:30 and we had missed the last train, and the next one wasn't until 5! so after futzing around for a while longer we ended up crashing on one of our new friends couches and having to bus/train back to gais in the morning. it was quite an adventure! while waiting in st. gallen for our train back to gais, we decided to make a quick stop into mcdonalds. i didn't even realize how much i missed those fries until i ate the first one. jen got this fabulous mcflurry with ovomaltine. which is ovaltine. they make chocolate bars that i have fallen addict to, and now my newest addiction is the mcflurry. it was heaven. we have already checked the mcdonalds site to make sure we can get one on our way home next time! [we also set an alarm for when the last train is that way we can stop having this timing issue!]

so once we finally made it back to good 'ole gais we were exhausted! we had planned on going to munich but we both really needed to get a few hours of sleep before anything was decided! by the time we got ourselves situated and hopped over to the denner so we wouldn't starve it was basically pointless to go all that was to just turn around, since we weren't planning to stay the night anyway. tomorrow after the gym we are going to day trip to lindau though. so after planning this [and a few other trips we're interested in taking that won't break the bank] i somehow managed to get pulled into modcloth. and i discovered they have a blog. except its like a super blog and is fabulous. chances are it will be entertaining me for years at this point! also it is making me very excited to hit up the salvation army again this week.. thursday hurry up and get here!!!!

more aachen.. just for fun

 just some more aachen compositions.. loving all the blue [after all, blue is my favorite color!] but enjoy.. the top are some quick brochure covers/backs/banners, and the bottom are the banner choices for the icon site!

aaaaaaaaaach aachen!!!!

so jen and i have been working hard on some aachen university! yesterday we both presented a million comps to lori and jon and morgan [our new work friend!] and then we picked and swapped around elements and jen and i each developed one comp a piece. they were very similar, but not exactly the same...
[check out my designs below]

after we looked at our two designs we decided it would be best to take her headings [they contained the important information about the courses such as date, location and price] and combine them with my boxy design at the bottom of the page [the box comes from the cover that aachen chose at the original presentation]

there is of course much more work to be done, and many changes will surely be made, but it is a good start to what will become a great series of brochures and educational literature! i hope aachen enjoys our work so we can keep moving everything along! next stop... logoooooos

i'll take you to foggy london town!

oh yes. that is correct. jen and i have officially booked our tickets to london! we are soooo excited. we also joined a gym called update fitness. i will not be walking well tomorrow. or lifting or reaching or anything that involves moving for that matter. i am basically exhausted at this point and super excited about london! today was also pretty busy at icon.. more to come on that tomorrow though.. after i get a good nights rest :)

abbasso il ré!
[did i mention we're learning italian haha!]

sial

sigma aldrich is one of our clients, and they are a company that is based internationally.. i have posted a few other projects i have worked on for them, but this one in particular i enjoyed. the people at sial are awesome to work with! many times a client can say "i want a poster [or flier, or brochure, etc] for this event and we want it to look good". well that just doesn't give a designer any direction as to what information needs to be included, or what is important and what is fluff. sometimes that's great and you can really get artsy and creative with it, but most of the time they end up wanting to simplify and  ruin what you believe to be your awesomely creative work! well sial tells you exactly what they need.. no more no less! they sent over this word document with each element they wanted to incorporate perfectly labeled and ready for me to manipulate! they provided the top graphic, the chart to superimpose, the image of the certificate and bottles, the symbols and logos [just in case we didn't have them]. it was a relief to be given everything in one nicely organized folder and asked "hey.. can you put this together for us?" so check out how i 'artfully' put together this sigma aldrich flier!

another successful weekend euro-style

this weekend was pretty fun. last night we met up with our friend roman and went to one of his friends houses. steffen and anita met us and we all went to st. gallen. first we went to the bierhof, which was aweeesome [live music, good bier] and met a group of guys who were chargers fans [boooooo] and then when they closed we went to the place next door. get ready for this. titty twisters. yeah. not a strip club or anything dirty. just a normal bar with fantastic schnitzelbrot! last night was also daylight savings. so although we got back at four [or something along those lines] we were in the mood of it was an hour later. it was rough but a great time.. we made some very cool friends!

then today lori and jon picked us up with one of lori's friends from school and we went to austria and saw a castle and ate at this great restaurant. the schnitzel was humongous and sooo tasty! now it is time for a massive nap because all the eating really wore me out!!

last friday of the month!

wow oktober is almost over! eek! we were pretty pumped about halloween this weekend, but it turns out that there realllly isn't much to do around here and that people think we are crazy americans for wanting to celebrate. no biggie though that is something i can handle! we spent last night putting the finishing touches on our modest outfits, and wore them to work today! i had thought that my sports jersey was a hiking team [i mean check out the image of the guy with the stick!!] but apparently it is for biking..

booooo... so ive decided to wear black spandex and halloween socks with it! oh and one of those headband ear warmers.. to act as one of those headbands that athletes wear to catch sweat.. as if i will be sweating in this weather! which is actually supposed to be really nice this weekend so get excited!!

harvard you are not that smart....

today at icon was fuuuun [as usual]. except the part where the harvard business manager attempted to trick me! we had this st.gallen ad that needed to go out to print in the publication, but for some reason the settings they gave us just did not want to work. check out how many times i redid the following file..

it does make me feel better that past interns have had issues with it too.. [jon has even written about it!] but noooo we got the best of it and it will appear! woooooo! it's always great to feel accomplished :)

just another day living in the swiss alps

so i am basically obsessed with the scenery that bombards us on a daily basis. everything is gorgeous and it nevvver looks the same twice! it is amazing. but it means i have a ton of photos from the same views. oooops!

yesterday jen and i walked home and i got some great photos of the mountains/sky! we walked because we are on a mission: project pretty. we are surrounded by chocolate, cheese, and overall fantastic foods that we cannot resist! so jon is going to see if we can join the gym [keep your fingers crossed!] after our walk from icon to the falken jen and i took a break and tried to sort out activities for the next few weekends. apparently there is a castle named burg rheinstein that we thought was close, but really it's near frankfurt. a trip we will certainly have to take!!

tue posts on twosday!

hahahahah my cleverness cracks me up at times... well even though i posted today about the happenings of lasterday i have decided to double up to keep track of today as well! today jen had her first stress day.. it happens to all, even at awesome workplaces like icon! so after a calm day at the office we headed home and hit up the denner before it closed. while there we purchased what we hoped was barley, and yet another <$4 bottle of wine... we are really keeping the denner in wein business. so we cooked some super awesome 'success barley' loaded with veggies and yummy goodness! naturally in order to instill the calm we whipped out our gigantic wein glasses from ikea [one bottle fits in two glasses with room to spare] and had an awesome time cooking some success food. we have got to attempt to work out. it's very difficult with the days getting so short in these winter months!

the real monday story....

okay so monday. basically the best monday icon has ever seen!

 

we originally lucked out [jon picked us up, so while we were waiting we were in the mercato at the train station...where they had a little bottle of smirnoff ice] because walking in the dirndl was scary.. they are considered formal wear to some, so we wanted to be careful with them.  plus the laundry machines here are scarrrry [only because they're different but it's all good] so washing them is going to be after a few wears... which made lunch a litttle scary to eat!

luckily jen is an expert chef and made some fantastical pesto spätzli, that we both managed to get in our tummies and not on our blouses! however, there was a scare later in the afternoon concerning some chocolate. but the engineers of the dirndl did their jobs well and it missed the white blouse entirely! the absolute highlight of the day [in my opinion at least] was the icing of good 'ole jon..

he was a very good sport about the whole thing. he was gone at lunch so we snuck upstairs to his lair and placed the bottle on his keyboard with a note informing him to check his email. there we had sent him the wiki link [see the link above] so he could read up on the activity and realize he needed to take a knee and chug. a very simple concept, but solid for a first ice experience.. if we got toooo creative it may not have been understood! we compromised and he did not take a knee, but the chug did happen... in the form of a few gulps. he'll get the hang of it later on. i guess it's been a while since the chuggin' days at wisconsin... as we were cheering on our chugging boss, he decided to capture our happiness [below]

this just really captures the whole feel of the day perfectly. keep calm and get your dirndl on

solid nap.

so today was awesome.. it included dirndl and icing jon. an overall amazing day. i tried to take a little nappy nap after work because i was just exhausted. it is now 2am and i just woke up [with my lights allll on] thinking it was the afternoon. solid nap. tomorrow i will have to post all the fabulous adventures of the dirndl!!!

rahhhr bern bear!

so in the spirit of the large sum we paid to get some 1/2 fare we decided to go play in the capital city of good ole switzy... bern. named after a bear, go figure. we literally had no idea going into this what was going on. jen and i slept in [which was fabulous] and then hopped a halbtax ride to st. gallen where we bought round-trip tickets to bern... our train was right there [or so we hoped] and we got on and then only about three hours later we arrived in bern! luckily jen had brought her rick steve's guide book so we went on the self guided walking tour of the place. awesome. its just a really well kept city, not many cars and a lot of great history. they did a great job integrating the old city into the new city.. adding in modern fountains that enhance the original crazy old architecture from the 1200s. i was honestly not all that excited about the day trip but i think it was awesome. and we tried the chestnuts that were roasting [unfortunately not on an openfire] ont he side of the road in these stands, they smell fantastic so we finally decided to give them a try. no wonder there is a song written about them. i think i'd like to go back to bern when it isn't raining, but even in the rain it was awesome! basically i feel as though all the adventures we've had this week have been ridiculous in a great way.. yay for the arrival of jen! also.. check out my facebook album of my first month in switzerland! this week marks the beginning of my second month already! crazy how time flies...

dirndl on.

so last night the jazz place absolutely rocks. bluesclub bühler. or bogenkeller. not really sure. either way it is our new hangout. as we were walking to the train [that never came] after work on friday this man stopped to ask us if we knew where the begenkeller was. we had absolutely no idea and he said well im playing jazz/blues there tonight so if you can figure out where it is come stop by. so we inquired and found out it was in the middle of a field. but ryan and steffan wanted to go, so jen and i were down to check it out. the music was awesome! the band was called big deal and they were all swiss except mike, the guy we spoke with. we helped the band pack up in exchange for them and roman, the bartender [for the lack of a better term] attempting to teach us how to speak german. we got down a few choice swear words and some necessities about cheese. overall a good start. mike's daughters go to uni in basel, and he told us its an awesome place, so we are going to go [with roman of course] for halloween and hopefully mike's daughter jamie [who is our age] will have some great suggestions for places we should go!

today we went into st. gallen and jen and i bought our 1/2 fare cards [which will be here in five days] so we could start traveling for cheaper. then we walked around and saw the markets, i got an awesome hat/scarf from c&a and then we went to this store i had seen before with dirndl. and naturally after trying on a perfect fitting dress [jen as well] we ended up purchasing them. we feel that the dirndl is a great investment and we can wear it when we go to hang out at the blues club, to work, anytime we go to germany, and anytime we go to austria. oh an for halloween next year when they aren't always normal for us to wear. jen got a black and red one and i got a black and blue one... hers has a lot more decoration and a metal chain, which i must admit i am envious of, but we got the last two in our sizes so it was perfect-o! for lunch we had this fabulous fresh pasta and the best pesto i have ever had. hands down [sorry zac and italy..] then we went to this place that was basically the salvation army only wayyyyy better and got some halloweeny stuff! basically its been a fabulous weekend.

beignet!!!!!!!

so today was quite interesting. after work jen and i were waiting on the train to get here. the train comes, but it is the one that goes in the opposite direction of where we live. the one that goes in our direction doesn't show. so we cross the street to go to the "bus stop" and it is now ten minutes after the train is supposed to come. then it shows. we are not at the stop because we crossed the street! so we decide to walk from steigbach to gais. it was pretty awesome. and tiring. but awesome. so for dinner we attempted to go to this bistro. it turns out it is a bar. for men. and by men i mean 16 year-old boys. they stared at us so creepily that we quickly left asap. we walked down the street and found another restaurant. the waitress spoke a bit of english so we sat down and attempted to order. jen only eats fish so we had trouble trying to figure out what was not straight up red meat [or the likes] we finally figured out something sweet and vegetarian-ish so we ordered that and a weinerschitzel mit pommes and waited... it turned out to be beignet with a homemade plum sauce that was fantasticcc! now were off to check out a jazz club...

sigma aldrich

so there is this semi huuuuge company we do work with called sigma aldrich [catchy blog title, right?] and they're big in the chemistry, sciencey world that i am foreign to.. probably more foreign than i am being an american living in switzerland! but the place that we meet is in the designing of their collateral. i have helped out on a brochure and created a newsletter template, that sort of thing.. their newest request however, appears below.

it is going to be printed as a magnet for them to disperse at their will! pretty fun. as you can see from the description the top left is the original and the bottom right is the reworked and retouched image that i created from the bottle and elements that sigma sent us. i hope they enjoy it!

also today, i went to ikea for the first time ever! i have ikea, i love the website... but today was my first in store experience...

it was awesome!! i almost got lost. we got so much awesome stuff. we have turned most of my room into an awesome lounge area [pictures to come.. and i should have taken a before shot!] and we stopped into h&m and i got a warm winter scarf so i don't freeze on the way to work tomorrow. also we decided to be a team of chefs for halloween since we've been cooking some awesome foods lately. french toast for breakfast this morning... pictures to come of that as well!

oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.

so apparently mother earth woke up today and said "eh, i don't really like autumn that much". which i find a huge shame because the fall is my personal favorite season. it has everything you could ever want! great colors, the turning of the leaves, warm and comfy clothes, awesome food, football, and did i mention the leaves?? well this morning in gais all that was ignored and big, fat, wet drops of snow pounded down on us as we walked to work [jen's first day i might add...]

here is the town square all covered in snow. spending my winters in south carolina made me forget just how cold and wet snow is! i was literally dripping while we were in the bakery! after we got to work we took a little outing for lunch and it was bright and sunny and nice out... sunglasses weather. i almost thought fall was going to come back to us.

and then the monsoon hit. the weather here is more a.d.d. than the south carolina weather, and that weather is allll over that place! after the monsoon it again got pretty nice out. after jen and i got back to the falken we rearranged my room so that we can have a little hang out area [and so we can have more space to practice tae bo if we deem it necessary] and then we went for a walk up the mountain to some residential area of gais. overall a great day!

week three!

today was the beginning of my third week here at icon! i can't believe it's been so long. today the new design intern jen got here. she is from cali and seems pretty awesome. i'm glad to have someone here who's onto the same track and wants to get some traveling under way! i just moved rooms so there's not too much going on tonight.. time to unpack again!

olma

today ryan and i cleaned up a bit in the kitchen [a good start but once we get some sponges that place is going to sparkle!] and then hit up the olma in st. gallen. this was the most ridiculous experience i have ever had [in a fabulous way] there was everything you could imagine. crazy carnival rides, animals, food stands, candy stands, bier and weine halls, shopping halls, flag stores, bell stores, electronic halls, furniture and bedding halls! it was nutzo. the most nutzo was for sure the pig races though..

along with this super awesome video i also took some pretty great snapshots of the happenings at the olma. check out the photos i've been taking during my trip[olma and then some]! oh also there was this awesome lumber race...

diplomprogramm unternehmensführung der universität st.gallen

today has been an extremely productive day. it has also been a fabulous day, for it is the day i discovered songza and their fabulous 90s station. there is seriously everything from the 90s. its the most fantastic thing i have experienced in a while. so as i'm rocking out to some beck and marcy playground [i can't believe they're still around, props boys] i thought i would share some more of what's happening at icon.

yesterday i took the look of the general management catalog that is currently being printed and put together this brochure for a program at the university of st.gallen on monday. once i took the information for the course off the website i made sure all the design fit into the correct layout and i included photos of the main three professors, along with the 25 professors included in the diplomprogramm unternehmensführung der universität st.gallen!

so really... why not???

it was a pretty big week at icon. we had michael from the printers coming and going, files and websites being checked and rechecked for spelling, translations, all that good stuff. and in the midst of it all there was glory... why not affairs and its mother why not enterprises are launched and live!

this crazy ginger angel you see above was one of my designs for a web banner for the philanthropy page of why not enterprises. the angel comes from a photograph by esther haase that i believe is owned by the why not founder/prez. the banner was originally located on a different site (the why not affairs one) and so i had also created the following two to go along with that theme.

the theme of the lilies came because the owner of why not [gabriella bär-richner] donates most of her profits to different mental health organizations here in switzy. the lily stands for hope and the purple ribbon is often used to symbolize mental health, as well as the two colors for the chakras located in the head are both varieties of purple! i had an awesome time researching hope for some of gabi's hope projects. there are just so many crazy symbols and meanings its fantastic!

bloggers block

every once in a while everyone must battle writer's block.. or in this case, blogger's block [dun dun dunnnn]!!! for me, the writer's block is easy to push through seeing as i have been an avid journal keeper since i was a teenager, but blogging, this is a new media for me to be dabbling in! so i have decided that if the only thing that is 'on my mind' is work, that i will begin to post a little bit about what i am doing over here in good 'ole swizty... because let's face it, there is a lot happenin' at icon worldwide and seeing as that is the whole purpose of this trip, it is often on my mind! [in a good way of course] so check back this week for some of the fun projects i've been working on...

sidenote: i neeeeed to get ryan's help fixing the background and whatnot of this thing! it's driving me crazy how off it is!!

anyone lived in a pretty how town

the avett brothers just appeared out of nowhere [via my itune dj of course] and graced me with their breathtaking 'the ballad of love and hate'. if you haven't heard it you really should. it's this fantastic slow and chill song about the patience and care that love has versus the disregard and distance that hate has..

my favorite part about this song, besides it sound and feel, is that it reminds me of my favorite poem [that i learned from jr. english, thank you mr. broadway for getting me hooked] called 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' by e.e. cummings. well, actually it's technically unnamed because that is how e.e. rolled, but it is still a masterpiece in my opinion! i actually attribute this poem for my utter disregard of capitalization while writing. the poem "details" the lives of anyone and the love of his life noone. i couldn't even choose a favorite line because every time i read it there is something new and refreshing that pops out and says pick me! let's hope that itunes genius can now create me the perfect anyone lived in a pretty how town playlist...
sun moon stars rain

cooookies!

oh boy! can you imagine 68 years of cookies? i can't. but gourmet has been around long enough that they not only have seen 68 years worth of recipes...

they even made an entire cookie book! what an awesome thing to have. the tag line is "the single best recipe from each year 1941-2009". this means they have over 68 recipes for cookies. i'm torn. should i go for it, or is this a bad idea??

oh philippa gregory

philippa gregory just does not get enough credit for her genius. i just finished the white queen, and if i hadn't already purchased the red queen in advanced i would have freaked out. this might be a better series than her writing on the tudors. and i loooove tudor history so that is saying a lot for these books!

the research and facts that she puts into all of her writings is amazing. it is almost as interesting to read the authors note at the end as it is to read the novel itself. i find myself wishing that she wrote about more than just english history.. i would love her take on the romanovs and marie antoinette and the medicis... so much history so little time! anyway.. philippa's stories will always hold a very close second place to harry potter... always waiting for the next one in line.