Week 6:
Weekend Trip

August 4, 2018

August 4th

Portland

This weekend I visited Portland for my birthday — a place I’ve had on my list of places to visit for a while now.  The trip from Seattle to Portland was about the same distance as my trip home from Mount Vernon to the suburbs of Chicago.  While there, I visited the Portland Art Museum, the Japanese Gardens, grabbed lunch from a food truck and explored many cute little stores.  At the Art Museum, I saw a piece which I had learned about in my Feminist art history class last year with professor Penn-Goetsch. It was such a fun mini weekend trip. I loved the drive itself from Portland to Seattle; it was so beautiful with all of the pine trees and nature — a very different view from the corn and flatlands of the midwest which I‘m used to driving through. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take another road trip before the end of my time here in the Pacific-Northwest!

Projects

I continued working on my Vendor profile project in the store.  I also began designing new labels for the store. I took measurements of what size labels they already, and I figured out how to streamline the types of labels that are in the store.  I also want to figure out how I can make them a bit more sturdy than the current plain printer paper labels that sit on the tabletops now. It was fun to design the labels and get feedback on how to best use the branding that Ventures already has in place.  I’m hoping to bring more consistency to the store’s use of branding – including using the Ventures font, colors and specific logo meant for the Marketplace, which hasn’t been put into use. I also would like to put systems in place for after I leave to ensure that the store can be self-sufficient about making their labels. I would also like to order some supplies to help the store make more sturdy feeling signage in general.  I have asked Ventures to invest in card stock paper and a laminator.  The inner-crafter in me is excited to find materials which will make my newly designed labels feel more concrete once printed.  It’s nice to be able to see my projects through all the way until the end and be able to see how they look once printed as well, rather than just leaving them as a design on the computer.  At the end of my time here it will be cool to see them printed and hanging up in the store!