Design Camp Sans S'mores

The awesome guys I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with - Jason Kernevich, Eric Madsen, Simon Collison, Will Gay (my husband of course), and Dustin Summers.

On the left - Ben from Studio on Fire, The Heads of State, and Tom Wixo. On the right - Doug Powell, AIGA President (just so you see this was a serious conference)

I'm just getting back from a fun little break. Normally a design conference would fall more under the "work" category, however, since I stay home with the boys, and that usually involves really intense work, I'm gonna call this a break. Luckily though I got to take Will with me. Well, actually it was more the other way around.

A few months ago Will got invited to conduct a series of workshops at AIGA Minnesota's Design Camp, which is basically a design conference in a camp setting. Me, having attended Design Camp in the past, decided in less than 0.2 seconds I was to accompany my husband in this endeavor, you know, for support. Ok, and for the s'mores. S'mores are, in my opinion, not only delicious, but extremely fun to make. Maybe it's just something I missed out on as a child that I'm now trying to make up for. After all, my first experience with s'mores was just 6 years ago – at Deign Camp. 

So this year I go up there very focused to make sure I get my s'mores. The first night we were too cold and too tired, so we go back to our cabin. The last night Will discovers he's lost his wedding ring right as we are ready to walk to the bonfire. RRRrrr. So, we spend a long time looking for it and by the time we make it to the fire the s'mores are all gone. Yes, he did find the ring, but I should still be mad at him right? I tried, but I really can't. Despite of it being a sans s'mores experience I have nothing but great things to say about my time at Design Camp. 

Even though I absolutely do value the fact that I'm able to stay home with the boys, I find it very exhausting, both physically and mentally. I didn't choose a career in graphic design for the money. Yeah, I don't think anybody would do that. But I did very much enjoy my work. Now, I get maybe 1-2 hours on some days to work and to be honest I miss it. I'm not ready to go back to working outside of the house just yet, but I am trying to balance things a little better. Going to Design Camp for a few days was so refreshing to me. I got to hang out with my husband and I also met a lot of wonderful people. The whole experience confirmed that I need to dedicate a little more time to my career. Designing makes me happy, and a happy mom is simply a better mom.

So thank you Will for "making the cut" and allowing me to tag along. And, thank you to the amazing AIGA Minnesota team that put this event together.

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If you're interested in learning more about what went on during Design Camp this year Ben did a really good job with his reports on the Neenah Paper Blog. And there's a picture of Will and I on "day 0"