Alyssa Gauger | Graphic Designer

#LandHoOhio

alyssa gauger — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:50:53 +0000

After sailing back and forth to countless job interviews (and by sailing I mean putting several thousand miles on Otis, my sexy Toyota Avalon) I have finally found my calling. It was an easy decision really– but for some reason it hit me in the face like a bird to a freshly windex’d window.

When someone asks me “What have you been up to?” My initial reply is always, “oh, you know the usual; shopping and working”.

For those of you who live under a rock, yet still manage to come across my website:

shop·ping
/ˈSHäpiNG/

Noun
1. The purchasing of goods from stores.
2. Goods bought from stores, esp. food and household goods.

Also known as, my addiction. My comfort. It’s how I like to spend my time. But why do I shop? Is it because I truly have an addiction? Probably. Is it because I live .5 miles away from an amazing mall? Most likely yes. I could go on for hours and give several excuses of why I like to shop. But after I began my new job at Lane Bryant, I realized that I could truly narrow it down to one solid, non-b.s. reason. I am enticed by the floor displays, window treatments and sign packaging that a store has to offer. ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL.

I am a visual person. My brain can’t help it if a store has a big sale sign with beautiful typography and models that make the clothes whisper, “take me to your closet” in an eerie alien voice. Why did I not think of this before? Someone has to make these stores appeal to their target audience. Retail marketing! DUH ALYSSA, DUH. I know all about marketing strategies thanks to Artie Isaac. And Lord knows nothing pisses me off more than a store sign with bad leading, kerning, or alignment (something overlooked by the untrained eye).

After 2 interviews with LB, I was offered a position as a freelance graphic designer. With a huge grin on my face and most likely flared nostrils and bulging eyes, I gladly accepted.

As I set sail on this new post-grad lifestyle, I have met some pretty incredible people who I now have the privilege of calling my friends (#workfriends). I never thought I was the type of person who would enjoy sitting in a cube for 9+ hours a day, but when you work with fun people, it’s almost as if the walls don’t exist.

So for now (aka since August 2012), I have found my calling.

#nowwhat

alyssa gauger — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:56:15 +0000

May 12, 2012 is a day I will always hold dear to my heart. I came to CCAD a doe-eyed freshman and I leave ironically with a deer-in-the-headlight look.

This look comes from the great search that is a job. No, I was not one of those graduates blessed with a job offer right out of college. Yes, I have been applying. But the question is, am I being too picky?

I grew up in the great state of Iowa (No, not Idaho. No, we don’t grown potatoes. And no, I didn’t grow up on a farm, near a farm nor did I work on a farm). I knew that I would never stay there after high school, so I applied out of state for my undergraduate studies. That’s where CCAD came into play. I then planned the rest of my life.

With my doe-eyes plastered on my face I went through my 4 years of college, I galloped across the stage at commencement (no really, I did. I was too excited to just walk so I did this dumb, gallop that i do when I’m super stoked for something) and I find myself saying, now what?

After applying to all of my dream companies in Chicago, I sit. I wait. I bite my fingernails down to the beds in which they grow from,as my stomach grows tighter, turning about like a washing machine. Now I find myself saying, this sucks. I wait as my friends and classmates get their big boy/girl status and congratulate them on their new jobs. Secretly raging with jealousy I ask myself, what the eff is wrong with me?

Am I being too picky? Its been my dream to be in Chicago since I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Well I say, too hell with it all. I have a dream, a goal to work in the great city of Chicago. Home of the deep-dish pizza and lollapalooza. And when its my time, I will get there.

I don’t give up on my dreams. And I certainly don’t give up on my goals.

P.S. I did have an amazing interview with S77 yesterday. Fingers crossed.

Sometimes I make ‘Hey Girl’ memes

alyssa gauger — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:22:01 +0000

CCAD has a mascot?

alyssa gauger — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:48:51 +0000

When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to go to college. Why? One word, Football. I could lie and say that I love the game, but we both know that’s not 100% true. It’s more than just a sport to some, it’s a reason for getting up early on a Saturday morning and cracking open that 6am beer. But for me, it was more about the unity of the crowd cheering in the stands for a victory or crying over a close game. It always seemed that anyone who was anyone attended these games.

When I finally got to college, I never thought in a million years that I would go to a school without a football team. But, when I go home for breaks and answer the age old question, “Where do you go to college?”, the topic of football always seems to follow closely behind (It must be one of those universal college questions that is easy to ask without getting too personal or displaying that in fact you really don’t care about how their college career is going).

So when someone asks me about my school’s football team I say, “We don’t have one.”
When someone asks about my school’s mascot I say, “We don’t have one.”
Then the jokes come flying in. Cliche jokes about cliche art students, their physical stamina and finally what our mascot would be if art students had a football team. The number one answer, a paintbrush. REALLY? I could think of at least 10 things that would be better than a paintbrush.

After reevaluating the student section that I will never have the knowledge of knowing, I wouldn’t trade art school for the world.

So You Drink PBR?

alyssa gauger — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:21:41 +0000

So one night a few friends and I were talking about the annoying comments we get when we tell people where we go to school. (For those of you who don’t know, I am a current senior at Columbus College of Art and Design). We started a list of ‘shit people say to art students’ as a joke, and it turned into something bigger. Soon, ideas of creating a ‘shit people say to art students’ video and posting it to youtube were in the mix. (BOOM! Internet famous right?) But until those days of internet fame, I decided to focus my blog and share the ideas we came up with through the graphic styling that is Alyssa Gauger (thats me!).

This specific post is centered around the assumption that all art students like PBR (which has also been referred to as Pabst, Pabst Blue Ribbon, America in a can, The drink of Hipsters, etc.). This is an incorrect assumption. Yes, the majority of my friends drink it, but is it because they actually like PBR or is it the new cheap college beer? Maybe its the specialized can that is made perfectly for shotgunning or maybe its a slowly increasing happiness that adds to the interplay of ingredients, while the texture smooths out by mid-bottle?

Well, I say move over Nati, PBR is loved by all college students across the land, not just the ones of the art persuasion.

#shitpeoplesaytoartstudents

Recipe for Getting Shit Done

alyssa gauger — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:05:25 +0000

With the stress of my college career coming to an end I find myself having more homework parties (and by homework parties i mean myself, set up on a card table, in the living room of my cold frigid house while blaring every Explosions In The Sky song that I own). Here is a little reminder to myself to Stop. Breathe. And keep working.

I hope you like my secret recipe for Getting Shit Done.