Camp Firebelly 2011

Sorry about the late post guys, the reason for this is brilliantly summed up by the awesome Nick Adam, ‘today in Chicago is tomorrow in England’.

Our last day of Camp Firebelly was a sad, yet joyful day. We woke up to find a massacre of dead flies in the bottom floor of the studio. I know… it wasn’t a nice thing to wake up too. And a beautifully hand crafted, perfectly manufactured, one of a kind basketball net smashed to smithereens. But once we had overcome the horror, and managed to clean up the remains of the night before, we all started to pack up and get ready to go back to reality. A place where you can go to sleep at anytime, there is no web cam streaming everything you do 24/7 and no unlimited supply of Mountain Dew, 5 hour energy drinks and coffee.

Crazy right?!

However, we couldn’t just end the best 2 weeks ever on such a sad note!
NO, off course not!

We spent the remaining few hours playing football(or soccer), frisbee and football on the roads just outside the studio. And yes the occasional car drove past, some of which weren’t that happy about this…

If you have any complaints please contact Ohn Ho…

I’m only joking guys (no seriously).
Once we had done this, we had to dismantle our beautiful tables and chairs we built. Including the lazy susan and bar area. Only leaving the tyre swing there.
(Which I imagine Darren and Will will be playing on during their designated breaks)

We then organised to go to Pop-eyes for lunch, as some of us were wanted some fried chicken (after 10 days of vegetarian food, us meat eaters where craving it). But said good-bye to the few that were unable to make it.
Whilst at Pop-eyes, I tried fried chicken and biscuits….it was good! As well as making our final gifs (it might have been the sleep deprivation, or our gifs where that funny! But gif’s kinda became our thing…)

This is when we all parted, I headed by to England, and the others stayed back for another couple of days (unless they lived in Chicago where I assume they will be staying for a while).

It was sad saying good-bye to everyone, we had an awesome 10 days together and I know that we will all do some amazing stuff in the future …

So watch this space!

And I am sure we will all meet up soon!

Thanks Camp Firebelly for giving us an amazing 10 days, and giving us the opportunity of a life-time, to all the people who helped out with presentations, studio visits or giving us an insight in to the design world and to the 9 other campers who made my experience amazing!

After the fact that majority of us campers (plus an amazing camp counselor by the name of Alex) stayed up till the wee hours of 6 a.m. completing our last assignment for The Center of New Community – postcards that were part of a series of questions aimed at advancing the national dialogue on race, food, and worker justice – we got semi-dressed and presentable for Andrew Demeitz of Unisource who showered us with takeaways and samples from companies such as Odeon, New Leaf Paper, Neenah Paper, Mohawk Paper, and a slew of other such manufactures of premium and fine printing papers.

Once lunch broke out, campers got hard at work prepping for the extravaganza that would occur at Firebelly Design studios later that night, showcasing all our work and process to Chicago’s design industry and friends.  With that being said, we all knew it was to be a celebration and a chance to acknowledge and thank those who had made a large contribution to making camp what it was, which was legendary.

With a ridiculous amount of off-cut paper donated by Salsedo Press (who printed out our tabloids), cardboard trees, and a bunch of process work to display, we set out and made the studio ready for the party in a matter of hours.  Though we scrabbled to get everything the way we wanted it, things ended up looking pretty amazing and holistic, with finished work presented along side an entire wall of process work, an intricate paper installation behind the bar, and gifs and a photo-montage projected onto a screen, guests were able to view the tabloids, poster, website, postcards, and woodwork while dancing to a live DJ and chowing down on some epic pizza.

Gong-show accomplished.

I’m clearly too lazy to make an alliteration, after all it’s been a long, but rewarding few days. First thing today was to go on our press check at Salsedo and can I say the tabloid looks AWESOME! Plus the printers were more than hospitable and let us take home some sweet extra posters from around the shop. Be jealous.

Afterwards we journeyed to Inglewood (home of Derrick Rose BTW) to visit Growing home. We tried organic and locally grown vegetables. I found adorable bite sizes strawberries and got to try lots of fresh vegetables and herbs. They even let us take home some chard! Nom. The colors are brilliant and make a sassy accessory to Dawn’s outfit. Haha!

We came back to get right back to some serious design work. Our postcard project. We split up and went to take some pictures to use on the postcards pertaining to food justice. I got a great shot, plus some pictures of cool graffiti. We got back for dinner to get a visit from Luke Williams from Leo Burnet. He gave a great talk about what he wants from his career and his experiences in a program like Camp Firebelly. Made me realize how truly lucky I am to be a part of this and how much of impact I can make as a designer.

Immediately after Matthew Hoffman came over and we carved type out of some wood. I know for some of us the jigsaw was new and scary. My biggest challenge was thinking of something clever to cut. I ultimately chose the word “BROSKI” you may not get it, but trust me it means something to us. I’m going to finish it and varnish it at home. HOME! me oh my that is almost here. Tomorrow is the last full day and Wednesday I must retreat back to the suburbs. I’ll sure miss this place and all the people (but I may miss sleep more I’m a pro-napper).

Peace, love, and camp hard.

This is the first day we have had with nothing planned for us, a nice long break with a much needed morning full of sleeping in. After a late start we went out around noon to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

At around noon we the campers split up, some of us heading over to the Gay Pride parade, and the rest of us wandering throughout the city. We started at a car show at Humboldt Park full of Low Riders and the intoxicating smell of Puerto Rican food.

The next stop was downtown, which consisted of potbelly sandwiches and Millennium Park. The Bean was quick, but the main attraction was acting like 6 year olds, barefoot at the Crown Fountain.

The final stop of the day out was the beach. Although it turned out to be incredibly tough to find a frisbee to toss around, we completed our mission and ended up all together at the Oak Street with a frisbee and a volleyball. Frisbee turned out to be our forte, while our attempts at volleyball must have seemed pathetic at best (although to be fair, certain individuals actually knew what they were doing). Regardless, lots of running and falling around was indeed fun, and after a couple hours we headed back to the studio.

I must say thank you to Dawn Hancock for a delicious Indian meal from Jaipur, which was our dinner destination at 7pm. We were all tired, and all satisfied and finished the night back at the Firebelly Studio with a combination of mario cart, rooftop chatting and lots and lots of facebook.

That was our break, and we now have our final days to look forward to.

But first, sleep.

Yesterday morning we arose earlier than normal with only the instruction ‘be prepared for a long day of work’ from our secretive Firebelly camp councelors. Our sleepy eyed assemblage was immediately energized upon the arrival of Steve Haulenbeek (Steven Haulenbeek Design Solutions) and Emily Pilloton (Project H). We knew we would be building something fun. The project goal would be to construct a dining and seating area outside for 25 – 30 guests of a community dinner, as well as the meal that would be eaten, by 6pm. Steve and Emily each took a group of us – Steve’s group went to a warehouse to pick up some salvaged goods they had found in alleys earlier – Emily’s group went to the farmers market to pick up some healthy goods – and we set to work immediately.

It was a hot and sunny day, after our week of humidity and clouds. It was a perfect day out, actually. For the next nine hours we deconstructed and reconstructed, we planned menus, chopped veggies, pulled nails, sawed logs and old armoires and even a weirdly painted mannequin leg. We built every idea that someone had and used nearly every piece of salvage we had accumulated. And when 6pm rolled around, we were a worn but happy group, for we had completed our goal, and more. We had a winding thirty foot table, with a tire swing on one end and a basketball hoop (hand constructed of course) on the other, and included a sunken ice chest, to accommodate the raised tiki bar (with sun umbrella) and its drink slide (or, drink luge if you were to imbibe directly from the slide), a built in tree, twinkly Christmas lights, lanterns, a hand woven hammock chair, a love-seat with a netted harp back, a throne, a lounge chair, and numerous benches. Custom place-mats and bouquets of flowers began to transform our trash table into a fine dining space, and as guests began to seat themselves, tall glasses of water with cucumber and lemon wedges were filled, and the bar slide was in business.

Charlotte from Center for New Community started us off with a moment of thanks for all that brought us together and a discussion about our next project for them, which will be postcards about Food Justice. We discussed this and issues surrounding Food Justice for a few moments, and then it was meal time!

When the food arrived, we were all awed, and our hard working hungry bellies were soon full of copious amounts of deliciousness – hor d’oeuvres of artisan bread with fig spread, apricot spread, baked cheese, fresh strawberries, butterfase and french cheeses, heirloom tomato bruschetta, and candied pecans were followed by roasted root vegetables, potato tarts (presented with beautifully woven greens around them), pasta, julienned salad, and cheesy baked asparagus. All of this was followed by little rhubarb short-breads sandwiching whipped cream and drizzled in honey. AMAZING. Oh yeah, and baklava and carrot cake!!

As the evening wound down, the basketball court saw a lot of action and conversations lingered. As the light disappeared we began to carry up dishes. Exhausted, we were done! Actually no. We had another event to go to! But it was a secret, as per usual.

As we parked in front of a neon sign in Korean, we realized the last stop of the evening – KARAOKE! And what followed was 3 hours of hilarious group karaoke in our own private room. All I can say is Dang, can these campers sing!

So what will be next?

Stay tuned!

This is exactly what it sounds like.

After finishing three different projects in five days, we are far too lethargic to actually party. So we’re chillin’ and playing wii on U-stream. Last night was the final stretch in our first project for CNC, Friday morning being the deadline. Working through the night proved impossible because within a few hours campers and counselors were dropping like flies. As the last person awake, I got to witness each person’s spiritual resignment to fatigue.

This morning Dawn whisked us away to Rohner Letter Press for a lesson on, uh, letter press!

Bruno, the owner, was nice enough to give us a tour and teach us how to mix ink, load paper, and crank our very own posters. It was kind of like building your own robot child. You put all the pieces together in a blueprint, and today we got to plug it in a see it come alive! Our finished, tangible product has been conceived through hard work and lots of hand cranking!

There’s lots to be said about Camp Firebelly, but nothing stands out as much as is the amount of hands-on work we’ve had to do for our client. Designing a poster is one thing, but we also got to build a website from scratch, assemble a tabloid, and letter press our own posters. It’s been a rewarding experience but I think the physical, gritty involvement we’ve had with our work is what makes this victory taste so sweet.

We still have four more days to go, so tonight I’m going to add my voice to the off-pitch chorus of DJ Hero divas in the office.

One thing about CampFirebelly there is never a dual moment. Actually there is no moment at Firebelly where you will not be finding yourself collaborating with others, discovering something new, making amazing connections, or being surprise… like tonight.

Tonight was the night to unvail our masterpieces! Working practically nonstop, scampering to make our last minute adustments before leaving to presenting to our clients we didn’t end up where we thought we would.

Little did we know this was not going to be a normal presentation, OH NO! Anyone who knows Firebelly they go ALL THE WAY!!! And that is just what we did.

We went all the way to Lincoln Hall and found ourselves at the Show n’ Tell show. What an experience! From hearing about all the incredible ways Firebelly impacts their community to being able to reminisce about past campers and OH YES we presenting to our client. It was incredible and hilarious. There is nothing ordinary about CampFirebelly… what a night.

Apologies for the late post, but we’ve been working through the night in preparation for our final client meeting this afternoon.

In case there are any concerned readers out there, the water heater is up and running again and we are very happily showered campers.

The day started out with a delicious breakfast of french toast made by Lindsay. After breakfast, we got to work on our campaign for The Center for New Community. Each of the three groups developed their concepts for a presentation to the CNC.

The presentation went swimmingly. We received some great feedback and much appreciation for our hard work. We got the green light to continue finalizing our concepts and really get down and dirty.

Our surprise studio visit for the evening was to… drumroll please… IDEO! Had I not been in the middle of downtown Chicago with plenty of strangers walking by, I would have squealed out loud like a twelve year old girl. We were graciously welcomed into IDEO’s office by Matt and Sara, who started off with a presentation explaining what they do and how they do it. It was a surreal experience for me (and others, I’m sure) because IDEO’s process is something many of my professors at Herron School of Art & Design made a habit of referencing and teaching. We learned a great deal about the culture at IDEO and what makes them so unique and sought-after. Following a very informative Q & A session, Sara took us on a tour of the office and workspaces. It was amazing to see where all the magic happens.

Much too soon, we had to leave IDEO. I think we all left very inspired, to say the least. We returned to the Firebelly studio and wasted no time in getting back to work. Let me just say, the studio environment here is nothing short of amazing. Most of us campers didn’t know each other three days ago. Now, we’re collaborating and creating some fantastic things like we’ve been working together for years. Any time somebody has a question or needs feedback, there’s always another person offering help and suggestions. We all come from different places and educational backgrounds, so it’s been incredibly interesting to see these studio relationships develop.

Fast forward to 6 something in the morning, and most of us are still awake and hard at work. I don’t think I’ve ever consumed so much coffee in such a short time before. I’m not sure I could sleep now even if I wanted to! Sleep, however, is one of the last things on my mind at the moment because I’m so excited about all of the great stuff we’ve been making. Photos will be up soon!

Now, back to work on our final presentation and hopefully some sleep.

Over and out!

After a grueling night of strategizing over the direction of our creative brief for CNC (Center for New Community), we were gearing up for a few hours of precious sleep – some of us were fresh off of flights/busses into Chicago and had barely slept the night before. We were psyched to finally hit the hay around 3am.

Then tragedy struck.

Actually, not so much tragedy, but bad luck. The water heater busted and leaked all throughout the studio. The water seeped through the floor and started dripping from the ceiling of the first floor, where all of the campers were set to sleep.

Cue frantic clean-up by camp counselors! Deborah, Will, and Darren worked diligently on trying to throw buckets down to catch the leaking water while also trying to mop everything up. It was a test against time.

Soooooooo fast forward to 6am, when we all finally brought our airbeds up to the studio floor. We slept like babies…for about an hour and a half. It’s no biggie, because hell, it’s camp, right?! I guess we got close to “roughing it” last night, ha.

When we awoke, we had Martha Cotton, head of research at GravityTank come in and give us a great presentation about….presentations! It definitely helped us redirect our creative breif a little bit, which was due a few hours afterward.

The presentation to CNC went great and they responded quite well to our scope and direction for their campaign. Feedback was recieved and we were given the blessing to continue on our way to making a kick ass Poster, Website, and Tabloid for CNC.

Oh man, and there’s been so much more – afterwards, we had an amazing woman named Mary from the Morton Group who started an incredibly engaging talk about race and privilege. The campers all opened up and shared their stories of struggle and triumph with race, class, and societal issues.

After a little break, we were divided into our groups – yours truly being in the web site group. There was also a Tabloid and a Poster group, and we’re all given the responsibility of building our respective assets for CNC.

We had a great brainstorm/learning session, had lunch, and went on our second mystery trip! A trip to Tony Fitzpatrick’s home to basically, hear his story.

What an incredible story indeed.

I really can’t describe everything we heard, and to be frank, you really had to be there to understand it. Tony was so incredibly sincere and heartful about his advice and about sharing his passion for art with us.

Right now, I’m sitting in front of this big ass iMac and counting down the minutes until we get back in our groups for another late night session. Hopefully, this time we’ll get more than a couple hours of sleep.

But then again…You can sleep when you’re dead.

It’s day 1, and camp has not disappointed. Camp Firebelly is expertly camouflaged, but those who could find it would begin their 10 day internship. After meeting our client, The Center for New Community, and chowing down at The Burger Bar, we hit the ground running (food comas be damned) and began crafting our creative brief. It’s been a heartwarming and eye opening introduction to 10 days of design, collaboration, and sleep deprivation.

You’ll just have to trust me. This was a lot funnier at 3:30am.