Backstage Pass.

First of all, I want to thank those of you who read this blog. It means a lot to me that you care enough to check in on what's going on in your lovely city of Syracuse! Be proud of yourselves :)

Second of all, I want to apologize for all the posts thus far being the "work in progress" type of posts. I keep telling you about things that will be happening soon, but aren't quite there yet. Things like this take time, and so I just want to encourage you to keep checking back for updates and things like that. These projects WILL be real soon, as I mentioned in my last post!

Ok, on to the main point of this post.

I feel like I have a backstage pass in all of this. Have you ever been to a concert (or at least watched American Idol)?  If yes, you've seen all those people with the handmade t-shirts and posters proclaiming their love for the lead singer or the bass guitarist (lucky him). Sometimes someone thinks of a clever saying, slogan or design for the person they're "in love" with. (Think Taylor Hick's "Soul Patrol" or Justin Beiber's "Beiber Fever". Please don't ask how I know that one...) Anyways, my design class and I were those people with the handmade signs and t-shirts. We had some good, clever ideas for the Near Westside, and I just happen to be that one lucky person (with the good idea on my t-shirt) who gets to go backstage, meet the band, and show the good idea to the manager. I get to explain it, and maybe even help the manager out by calling the t-shirt company to get a quote for how much the good idea will cost to put on a t-shirt for the band to sell at their merchandise table. Soon enough, I'll see people walking down the streets of New York with our good idea sprawled across their chest on a heather gray t-shirt, and I can say "Look! There's our good idea! We did it!"

Okay, so you may think I'm crazy, but I'm talking about all this because yesterday I actually felt like I had a backstage pass to go meet the Near Westside band members, AKA, all the people involved in making good ideas become real. I went to a meeting with one of my co-workers at the Parks and Rec office of Syracuse and I wasn't just some girl sitting there listening to people talk; I was the one who got to talk about the projects and basically pitch them (again) to the one person who actually has the authority to tell me if these projects can be done or not. Exciting? :)

Things we discussed 
A) Regulations of city trash cans :: Who empties them and will the city pay for that? Where can they go? Every single street corner or only a few? What size do they have to be? Can they be colorful? ... etc. Direct quote from the guy we were talking with: "Trash cans are easy, that's not a problem. Let me know when you buy them and we'll get them installed." Yay!
B) Regulations of a neighborhood basketball tournament :: Is it actually possible and if yes, when could we do this? What are somethings we need to make sure we have before we go ahead with it? One thing he mentioned was that we need policemen/security guards because they want to make sure everyone participating in the basketball tourney is safe. TOTALLY an important suggestion and TOTALLY would not have thought of that before he mentioned it, so thank God he did.
C) Fences around Skiddy Park:: Which ones can we decorate? (They gave us free reign! Whee!!) Sidenote: We have a final design for the fences! It's cool. I'll show you sometime.

So anyways, I'm really glad I have this backstage pass. It's really fun to see what goes on behind the scenes... and I kind of feel important haha :) 

-S

This is going to be REAL soon: Sneak Peek.

This is a sneak peek of a banner that is going to be REAL soon!!! And by "real", I mean, not just an Illustrator file, but a printed, tangible banner that will be hung up in the neighborhood. Can you tell I'm excited?! :)

<3S

Murals on the Train Trestles.

This mural project is separate from the work my class did this semester, but it's something I'll be documenting from start to finish, and I'm really excited about it. Steve Powers is a muralist based in New York City, and his current project includes a series of 50 murals in the Westside of Philly, most of which you can see at this website. He's coming to Syracuse (!!) in late July and will start the murals in early August and will work for two to three weeks. He'll be painting three train trestles (six sides total) that all lead into the Near Westside neighborhood, for example:

Just imagine the possibilities for a empty canvas of that size! The cool thing is that before Steve starts a mural, he spends a week talking with the people in the community and then paints murals based on conversations he's had with them. So who knows what he'll be painting this time!

Alrighty, lots of things to do :) Come back for more soon.

<3S

Wedding Week.

This past week I went to three weddings. Three weddings?! you may ask. Yes! Three! All were of people I love and adore, and they were all so different, yet soooo beautiful. What a privilege it is to be invited to a wedding, to be able to celebrate something so lovely, perfect, precious with the bride and groom. Seriously, I can't explain it! I had a different role in each wedding: the first one I was a back-up photographer, the second one I was a bridesmaid, and the third one I had the privilege of reading a passage from the Bible during the ceremony. Thank you to each bride and groom for including me in your special days! :)

Because I was gone for a week, I didn't do anything related to this internship, but I just wanted to update you and reassure you that I didn't fall off the face of the earth :) Check back towards the end of the week for a progress update. THANKS!

And, because no blog post is complete without a picture :

Fences & Other Semi-Fun Things.

I hope ya'll had a great Memorial Day weekend! Mine was pretty awesome, and my birthday was Tuesday, so that just added to the fun :) 

Ok, remember in my last post how I mentioned our first project would be doing research and all the behind the scenes stuff so we'd be ready to put posters up in the neighborhood? Well, we're still doing that, but at the same time we're starting another project that will eventually involve the whole community: decorating fences! There are these cool plastic inserts that come in all sorts of colors that are specifically made so we can make designs on the fences. Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time walking around the neighborhood trying to figure out what fences we actually wanted to decorate. We liked the thought of a long stretch of fence because it'll be enough space to have a significant sized/length design. A large design means A) More people will see it and B) More people will get to help make it which is exactly what we want! Anyways, so today I dabbled around on Illustrator and threw some ideas out there. The one here obviously isn't done yet, but you can get an idea for what I'm going for. I'm still working on two other ideas as well [one relating directly to the "twine" aspect of the SALT District brand] and don't you worry, they're both equally as cool, promise.

 K, that's about all for now. I'll definitely keep you updated. Duh. Have a great day! -Stephanie

P.S. My roommate is making her world famous sugar cookies right now. Yeah, you can be jealous.