Camp Firebelly

So after 10 long, exciting days of non-stop design, collaboration and conceptualization Camp Firebelly is finally drawing to its end.  Today we woke up to a great breakfast, just like every other day, but this time we let the air drain out of mattresses and packed up all of our belongings.

We were delightfully accompanied by Salome from Beyondmedia this morning, where we presented all of the final products (Zine, Poster, Flyer). Her reaction was priceless, she is a wonderful person and the most amazing client anyone could ever work with. After presenting the work and saying our goodbyes, the projects we created with Mike Perry arrived on the doorstep. Everyone grabbed their share of the prints and we created a limited edition set of these completely conceptual zine-like creations.

The last lunch was perfect, pasta and garlic bread…couldn’t ask for anything more. As we sit here and relax, I think everything is finally sinking in. We just created four projects in ten days. Four projects that would have normally taken months. Four projects that look absolutely amazing.

Camp Firebelly was without a doubt life-changing. The counselors are leaders full of the most energetic inspiration. Not only have we all gained an unbelievable amount of experience, but have also formed a bond and friendship that will continue to spread throughout our lives.

To everyone who helped, participated, or was involved in this experience: I don’t know how to sum it up - but it was a mind blowing experience that has left me feeling better than ever. We are all leaving here with 4 finished projects, and memories and inspiration for us to hang on to forever.. this has really been an invaluable experience.

THANK YOU.

It’s really hard to believe that our ‘camp’ is almost over. To say the least, it’s been an intense week, and I think everyone is coming away from this thing with some invaluable experiences, new perspectives, and dozens of new friends. I know I am.

We shared so much in just a little bit of time, and I know we’re all better for it. I’m so grateful to everyone involved: campers, counselors, designers, girlfriends, boyfriends, visitors, drop-ins, whoever. This thing was only going to be what you made it, and you made it phenomenal. Thank you so much.

We had press checks throughout the day today, and were working on Mike Perry’s Project, both of which went well. The zine looks great so far from what I saw, and Mike’s project was interesting. We were up pretty late working on it, and finished around 5 today. Some snippets from my group’s project here, here, here and here! The final ended up nothing like any of that, but we had a great time making it all. We pretty much did the entire project off the computer, only using it to compose the final file. It was a nice change of pace.

Right now everyone is either working on Rick’s project, or singing some pretty amazing karaoke.. it’s quite entertaining. Camp Firebelly is winding down to the end, and it’s a little sad.

The ever-so-glorious Mike Perry came to visit us today, which was one of the highlights of the week. Because of how good he is, I kinda figured he would be really intimidating, but he was super cool and jumped right into being part of the family here at Camp. I think we all fell in love. It was awesome of him to come and volunteer some time to talking to us, and give us a project to take on.

Our main objective is to create a zine, that folds out into a poster. We did a fun, mind boggling exercise to get our minds turning, and lay out some of the initial thought processes to our stories. He really stressed jumping right into it, so we got quick to work.

Mike P will be back in the morning, so most of us are still working and will be working through most of the night. We will have another “pow wow” in the AM and will be working all day to polish off some of these ideas and pull everything together.

The file is at the printer and proofed, the poster is finished, and today we had a relaxing day full of adventure, food (of course), and shopping.

We got a tour of Salsedo Press yesterday - it was great.. the walls are covered in amazing posters, and the vibe was really nice. We had a delicious dinner last night, and are getting ready for another one tonight. Tomorrow we have a secret-something-or-other with Mike Perry, and on Tuesday we are unveiling the project we’ve been working on for Rick Valicenti. We still have a good amount of stuff to do, but it’s tapered off a bit compared to earlier in the week.

Anyways - short updated, but I just wanted to let everyone know that Camp was still kickin’ and we’re all still alive. Here’s proof.

Finally, after a case or two of energy drinks, the design is done and in production!

The day started with another fantastic breakfast followed by a field trip to the press. Salsedo Press is generously donating their services for this project. We got a tour of the press rooms to see the machines in action and learn a little bit about the process of offset printing. We’ll be returning in a few days for press checks. The rest of the day has been spent enjoying some much needed down time and screenprinting sessions with the Delicious Design League, a team of 2 designers that hand print all of their posters from their basement studio. Be sure to check them out. Even their scrap papers were amazing.

Later on it looks like some camp bonding over indian/fusion food, and possibly some more Chicago fun. Until then we’re all just hanging out, taking a break from our computers, and catching up on the rest of the world.

Today the schedule called for no special visitors, no field trips, no surprise projects…perfect.

Why? Well after waking up after a full-nights rest we jumped directly into the bulk of finalizing the design and layout of the Zine and poster. All day we have been designing and critiquing, helping each other progress every step of the way. Some of the design has been slightly modified, some totally revamped. And by dinner time (a delicious veggie lasagna) we had a beautiful mock up to present to Beyondmedia. We were extremely delighted by an overwhelming thank you from Salome before she delved into the Zine. As she flipped through page by page, her reaction was full of shock and awe. We all had wide smiles across our face and a well-deserved feeling of accomplishment. I think it’s all finally sinking in that this bad boy is just near an end (after only 4 LONG days of work)! After Salome shifted through copy edits, we combined all of our files and set them ready for print. Antonio will do some last minute copy changes as we feed him Red Bull through an IV. One benchmark left: Salsedo Printing Press, 8AM. We got this, wish us luck.

it’s day three of C.F.B., but i have yet to speak of my first two days here. let’s just say it seems like one big blur…right before taking on this project i had been taking a three-day morning-night intensive course learning the motorcycle. as soon as that was over, i drove to chicago to firebelly to begin the camp, for a 10-day design-marathon…whew.

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Today started out with a bang - we presented our first round of design concepts to the client bright and early at 9 am, after a late night of preparation. We had a really solid presentation - each team presented roughly two designs, and we had about 12 or more overall. The presentation went great, and they loved nearly everything we showed. I bet you’re just waiting to see it, right? Anyways, it was a success!

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