Summer Under The Tuscan Sun
This summer I spent two months living in Cortona, Italy, a small town on a hill at the edge of Tuscany. It is well known for being the place where “Under The Tuscan Sun” was filmed. During my time there I studied Renaissance Art History, Photography, Furniture Design, and Exhibit Design. My capstone project was an exhibit space for the Italian car manufacturer, FIAT. My final poster and other materials can be found under “Interiors; FIAT Showroom” on this website. I also had a photo blog on instagram called @guerinstudio where I posted daily. Not only did I learn a lot a visit some of the actual pieces and places I was studying, I also became close with the locals in the town and had an opportunity to practice my one semesters worth of broken Italian. Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip:
Rethinking the fabric bag
Recently, it has become popular for companies to use fabric or more “reusable” bags in a retail environment. Over time, I saved up a lot of these bags and tried to reuse them for different things. While the intention of a reusable bag is great, many forget the environmental consequences and water consumption it takes to make a fabric bag. In a recent UK study, it was found that a cotton bag would have to be reused 131 times at least to breakeven with the impact of a single use plastic bag. The link to this study is below:
So I decided to take some of these bags and turn them into clothing. So far I have made about seven shirts and hope to make more in the coming weeks. Many people have been interested in purchasing these shirts, and I am hoping to sell these with a portion of the profits going towards UGA Miracle, one of the philanthropies I am involved in who benefits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Reflection on Solo travel
I went on a ten week self-financed solo adventure. I went to ten different countries, met up with six different friends and made many more. Every day was different, and it pushed me out of my comfort zone in so many more ways than I can even begin to explain. I will be writing different more detailed blogposts about singular different experiences on the trip in the near future. But I can easily say that it changed and empowered my life. I tried to encourage minimum phone use to expand my photography capabilities while also helping me take everything in. Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip.
Recipe for Press
In the fall of 2017 I interned for Recipe for press, a company that helps entrepreneurs and small scale companies manage their public relations. I was a PR and communications intern, while also doing lots of graphic design for our clients. Some of my work from this time can be found in "Graphics". I learned a lot and had opportunities to design a catalog for a client, which was super exciting. This catalog was on display in their showroom at High Point Market, which is the largest home furnishings trade show in the world. Here is a link to a digital copy:
The other interns and I also worked together to do a few creative photoshoots--mostly for a company called Detroit Rug Restoration, which is a vintage run company. My fellow intern Amel had the coolest vision of draping the rugs over horses. She contacted her friends on the equestrian team and this is the most unique and cool shoot I had ever been apart of, although I had to get over my fear of horses to get the right shot. This promotional material is still used by Detroit Rug Restoration.
Bee The Change Pop Up Shop
Bee the change is a company focused on saving native pollinator and honey bee decline. We look at spaces where turf grass is planted and ask, "Why?". Primarily we are working in solar fields to create critical habitat by planting a variety of pollinator friendly plants. I am the design and innovation director and run our social media presence as well. More information about Bee the Change can be found here:
A part of my job for Bee the Change is organizing events. Being a start up we were only available online at first. As the summer went on and we developed more products and gained inventory we decided to do a pop up shop.
IPJ real estate in downtown Middlebury, Vermont kindly offered their space to us in their after hours. We popped up in the evening during the Festival on the Green, a evening live music show that brings a lot of foot traffic to the downtown. It was a treat to get face to face interaction with customers to share our story, while also getting feedback. While handling product development at this time too, it was a great experience to get feedback on our lip balms, luminaries and other products we make other than honey. Thanks to Lexa deCourval for the photos.
A Day with Nancy Milliken
This July in Shelburne, Vermont, a barn caught aflame, leaving only the charred ceilings beams that once supported the entire structure. Now weakened, yet as static as before. Artist Nancy Milliken had a response to this local tragedy.
As a team of seven we moved 12-foot charcoaled masses and held a canvas down. The beams were used as large pieces of charcoal speaking across the canvas--letting out a breath of expression. The resulting marks were exquisite. Nancy’s work with natural materials always result with a wonderful narrative. It was a privilege just to be on her team for the day.
Tibi at Heerys
I was cast to walk in a Tibi trunk show benefitting Heery’s clothes closet in Athens, GA. Having never walked in a fashion show before, this was an incredible experience and taste in the fashion world. I came to really appreciate all the goes into a runway show--from the designer’s vision, the model’s professionalism and everyone in between.
Photos from iPhone, The Red and Black and @_brittbass on instagram
Cool bands
It was a hot and humid day in July just outside of Richmond, Virginia. It must of been about 100 degrees Farenheit, but the turf we were playing on was probably 10 degrees hotter than that. Sweating and losing steam, my teammates and I dropped our lacrosse stick in a pile and went for the ice bucket, which to our delight had frozen towels that we draped over our faces, all half listening to my coaches half-time pep talk. That's when one of my friends said "wow, I wish I could take this onto the field with me."
We continued our tournament, and to be honest with you I can't remember the scores, if we won or not, or even which friend said that statement, but an idea occurred to me and it would't stop bugging me. Was I stupid? has this been done before? In my mind at that point it was really just an ice-pack headband.
I started doing research. It turns out, many studies suggest that cooling ones head enhances performance. So I made a prototype out of one of my favorite headband companies, Skida headwear, based out of Burlington, Vermont. I emailed Corinne, the founder, and she was interested in my idea and wanted to meet with me.
Later that summer, we designed a headband that could slip a ice pack in and out. We used the scraps from the making or her other headbands, which was great, because it was upcycling and creating a new summer product.
I had a lacrosse Tournament up in Stowe, Vermont later that summer. I contacted the tournament about having a Skida booth there--featuring my headbands of course. In between my games, I sold my product at the booth. Before the day was even half over, I had sold out! My whole team had them for the rest of the tournament of course, and with it being my last tournament of my high school career, "cool bands", as I called them, made it extra special.
