week 6: kelly wearstler

Sixth weeks have come and gone, and I am continually keeping busy for the most part. This week started out with a lighting schedule, Pos, pricing, and the usual errands. This week ended with painting for the product department. In between we had CBS come and film in the office a spotlight on Kelly and how the office works. It was definitely eventful and insightful into how things are filmed and what goes along with that. The best part of this week was getting stuck doing sketches, sigh, but being told that I had a great hand. I guess hundreds of European sketches paid off.

a few things i have learned...

After being on this internship for 6 weeks I have learned a few things about work....California... and more importantly myself. Here they are:

WORK

It is impossible to work as a designer without these things.. in order of importance

1. Post-its

2. A phone

3. A computer that contains Photoshop, AutoCAD, and Excel

4. A Scanner/copier/printer... nothing would get done around here without it

5. Hundreds and Hundreds of samples

CALIFORNIA

1. Roads are extremely confusing and drivers are worse than you can even imagine, you can ask me later how damaged my car really is, for example... yesterday I was sitting in my car parked when a guy decided to parallel park.... into my car. Lovely.

2. It's not what it looks like in the movies... We are currently involved in June Gloom, which is just how it sounds. No sunshine.

3. People express themselves in all sorts of ways... no clothes, hundreds of clothes, crazy outfits, dressing dogs in outfits, and my favorite... the homeless lady who was in the turning lane... with her shopping cart.

4. Everyone here has a dog, even their dogs have dogs. One prime example, we got home from work and 6, I repeat 6, dogs were behind our gate. How that happened I will never really know. I sure do love those cuddly critters though.

5. Traffic is by far the least appealing thing thing about California. I live 15 miles away from work and it consecutively takes 45 minutes to get to work everyday. Not only is it bad in the morning, it continually gets worse during the day... even at midnight. Oh technology, how you have changed our world.

MYSELF

1. Traffic can be handled by two things... shuffle on my ipod and orange juice. That is the cure for all things.

2. I can survive without having a bath every week.

3. It really is a huge problem when my toe nails aren't painted.

4. I get really excited when I can cross things off my list... I love lists... and post its. (You can even ask my roommates how severe this list thing is, and no I'm not crazy, I just like to be organized).

5. I miss my family more than I ever thought I would. I miss my dog. My home. The mountains. and the comfort of my own bed. Not too much longer Salt Lake, I will be home. You will ever remain the most beautiful city to me.

week 5: kelly wearstler

Wow. It’s already week 5. I feel like I am starting to get how the office runs and what is expected of me. I am making personal phone calls with the designers about my tasks, and I feel like part of the team. This week I worked mostly on shop drawings for custom vanities, tables, and beds. It was interesting to learn how they set things up and what details are necessary for a piece to be built. I also ran errands to pick out hardware, fabric, and drop of checks. After designing some doors for a beach house, Kelly picked a few and I put them in CAD to price out for the client. It’s fun to know that one of my designs will be the front door for a celebrity beach house. On a more interesting note, I had to translate foreign design magazines and search for the vendors in the photos. After many hours of searching I had to call and request catalogs. Needless to say it was an adventure and I figured out all of them but one. Been a busy week!

kelly week 4

It seems as though the weeks are just flying by now. I have gotten a feel for the office and how work is done at Kelly Wearstler Inc. This week I was kept really busy. The beginning of the week I rendered a railing for our Seattle client, found and printer lots of CAD drawings, space planned a room for the Kuwait Palace. I also ran to pick up a custom made jacket that is being made for Burberry’s 75^th Anniversary. Keep your eyes posted for pictures of that soon. The next 1,000 hours were filled with endless POs and Pricing. I guess I am the go to girl for Pos. Friday was filled with everyone running to my desk and asking me to do their work. I priced and printed information for three projects which took a long time to call, file information, and print for client presentation. All while doing that I had to fix all the bathroom elevations for a residence here in LA. As much as I was stressed, I loved what I was doing and being busy. That’s how you know you love what you’re doing I suppose.

museum lovin'

Friday June 4th: We got work off early and headed to the mall. Jess had to return some things and I sat around while she shopped for some shoes. We all know how much I love shopping. After that we came home and took a nap so that we could have a longer evening out. Kait got home and then we headed to the Grove for Cheesecake Factory (oooh, my fav). Naturally the wait was long, so we shopped around for a minute. Outside the restaurant we ran into Jonah Hill, famous for naughty movies, and we thought we would ask him for a photo. He completely snubbed us, so we went and had a delicious meal anyway. Red velvet cheesecake you are my love. After dinner we were all extremely full and wanted to just walk around and go home. Night complete.Saturday June 5th: Not such a good morning. I was feeling really sick

and spent most of my time laying down or in the bathroom. The girls decided to go to the beach, I decided that was a bad idea. So I hung around the house, started feeling better, and decided to go MUSEUMING! I sure do love learning things. Yes, I am a dork and went by myself exploring LA. Here are the following things I visited:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis house (pure beauty)

Page Museum (Fossils and such)

Tar Pits

Griffith Observatory
Pacific Design Center Museum of Contemporary Art

(intriguing display on the architectural foundations of Las Vegas)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

After all of these learning places, I met up with Jess and Kait to go to dinner and a movie at the Americana, a beautiful outdoor mall with a great night atmosphere. We ate yummy crepes. Reminds me of Europe. Ah.... my life is bliss.

week 3: kelly wearstler

It has been another relaxing weekend here in California. This week we’ve been working on more of the same things, errands downtown and POs. The head designer LeAnn told us that we would learn the most important lesson, which consisted of making sure cabinets didn’t hit expensive lights that were already ordered. I also did some renderings for the office elevations I had been working on. I also created some presentation floorplans for a new project, to send to Kelly. The last and best thing we did was shop for furniture for a new apartment complex. I loved looking at funky furniture and picking things out for Kelly. Hopefully she will love the things we picked out.

visitor

work: week two

Time is starting to fly by. I was much busier this week, because all the designers were back. They have given me more responsibility as time goes on. The start of this week we put some boards together for the Kuwait Palace, and were to work with Kelly to create some "vibe" boards. The main designer I work with is Leana, and she has had me do a custom cabinet in CAD. Her response when I finished was...."cute!" That was awkward, who knew a cabinet drawing could be cute? I also worked on tile patterns, an office elevation, a celebrity's door design (secret, secret, but she is a BIG one), invoices, POs, vendor runs, client drop offs, and we got to go to some really cool stores and look at antiques. This stuff would never be found in Utah. :( (Sorry Dad, it's inevitable that I get out of beloved SLC). Check it out-JF Chen.

I am loving this experience and figuring out my own style and ways of working. I love all the designers and learning from them.