Back to reality...

Wednesday, June 30th I returned home from the 3rd annual Camp Firebelly. Words cannot express how amazing of an experience it was. It truly was life changing. When you combine 10 fresh, like-minded designers along with an amazing established design studio, the sky's the limit to what you can accomplish. Better yet, there is NO limit. That is exactly what we discovered by the end of the 10 days of this crazy-intense camp. And when I say crazy-intense, I MEAN crazy intense. But it was all worth it, every waking moment of it, and a majority of the 10 days WERE waking moments (fellow campers: you know what I mean.) We researched, brainstormed, presented, designed, screen printed, met and helped families in need, raised money for the families, designed t-shirts, created an identity and implemented it over a series of printed material, visited studios, threw a party, drank, played rock band, goofed off, danced, & MORE! Yes, MORE! There is just too much to tell. As I previously stated, words truly can't express how great of an experience it was. I would most definitely recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.

A BIG thanks goes out to the Firebelly Design crew (Dawn, Will, Darren, Alex, Ryan, Lindsay, and we can't forget Coffee!) for making the whole experience possible and for being our gracious hosts, Mike Fretto of Rosa Loves for hanging out and teaching us the ways of t-shirt design/printing for a good cause, the dudes at Delicious Design League for teaching us the ways of poster printing and showing us around the studio, Mig Reyes and everyone at Threadless for letting us roam around the studio/factory, Rick Valicenti and everyone at 3st for giving us a taste of your life as a studio and instilling us with some of your insight and knowledge, the people at Vosges Haut-Chocolat for the tour of the creative department as well as the rest of the factory, Mathew Hoffman of Believe Inn for letting us delve into your world of wood and type, Elev^te Studios for teaching us how to present more efficiently, Andrew Dembitz and Unisource for showing us the many facets of paper, Shannon Medic and Reason To Give, Laura Brooks of YWEP, Mike Renaud and Zach Dodson of the Show n' Tell Show, Salsedo Press, and AIGA Chicago!

I would also like to send out a BIG, warm thanks to all of my fellow campers at Camp Firebelly 2010...

Ben Wagner

Michael Gump Jr.

Cassie Hester

Svetlana Bilenkina

Brittany Skwierczynski

Marek Szeszycki

Stacey Zeto

Johnathon Strube

Kat Marshello

...It was awesome working with all of you! You all are extremely talented and I wish you the best of luck! Keep in touch and hopefully our paths will cross again and a reunion will be in order!

PS: to anyone reading this... feel free to click on any of the illuminated names within this blog post! Especially my fellow campers! It will send you straight to their website where you can check out more about them and their affiliations!

Also, please forgive me if I have left anyone out. There was just so much that we did and so many great people that helped out along the way, it was hard to keep track of them all. If I have forgot anyone or misspelled anyone's names let me know and I will be sure to add/change them.