FullBleed

I started to weave Randi Meredith’s answers to our Fresh Face questions into a narrative, but I felt compelled to leave her responses as-is. There are far too many details describing her that would otherwise be dropped … and then you wouldn’t get the full scope of Randi Meredith. Which would be a shame. – Steph

I’m from Shamokin, PA. I lived there for the first 18 years of my life then moved to Chestnut Hill, PA, for 2 years of school. After that I lived in King of Prussia & Phoenixville, PA for 6 years. Then off to Kutztown, PA for 4 more years of school.

I’m 29.

I’m the middle of three children all very close in age and raised by my mother. We are a very close group.

I only speak English but I can read Spanish in context. I love to travel and do so as often as possible. I’ve been in Cambodia, Thailand, Jamaica and took a sketching tour of Mexico. I’ve also traveled through the entire eastern seaboard and some of the mid-west.

My step-dad said if he told my mom and I that he wanted to go on a trip, she and I would have our bags packed and be in the car before we even asked where we were going.

I’ve gone tandem skydiving twice in the last year with my housemates from Kutztown. The second time I took my brother with me. The third time will be with my mom.

I was a bit of a tomboy when I was a kid. Completely obsessed with dinosaurs, dirt and worms. The dinosaur obsession continues to this day. I have all my dinosaur toys from when I was a kid decorating my office. I’ve got a number of dino books from when I was a kid and have collected many more since. The most recent addition was Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up by Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart. He gave a lecture at Kutztown and they both autographed my copy and drew a rad T-Rex inside. All the Sabuda books are insane. If you need inspiration just open one spread.

I take photos with my cell of things I find amusing and put them in a Facebook album called “Umm…” Usually they are of typos, really bad kerning, or signs that don’t make sense.

I don’t eat fast food or anything that has to be classified as being a “food grade” substance.

I want to own lots of land and have a small farm; chickens, pigs, bees, a garden, etc.

I have a lot of sneakers. Weird ones with bright colors, odd color combinations. I got my hands (and feet) on considerably more pairs from my internship at Reebok last summer. Can’t beat a sample sale.

I love to draw, I always have. Though as much as people told me I was very good at it when I was growing up, I didn’t believe it. It wasn’t until I started at Kutztown that I believed I could really make a career out of something I loved to do.

I used to collect bugs — not in a serious way — but I loved to look at them. I would gather them out of the pool filter. I also would freeze them in ice cube trays of all things. How weird is that?

When I was applying for college during high school, it took a long time for me to decide between art and chemistry. Chemistry always made sense to me and I liked to draw the diagrams. I think the periodic table is beautiful. That’s probably the graphic designer in me. Mmm … grids.

I don’t have good penmanship, and I generally do my handwriting in all caps.

I played soccer for 10 years. I was the sweeper.

I had a pet iguana for 13 years. Her name was Gandhi — she wouldn’t eat for the first few days I had her, hence the name. She was 4′8″ and didn’t have a cage. She slept under my pillow and was toilet trained; on the actual toilet.

My older sister, Rachel, is the most intelligent person I’ve ever known. She went to NYU and lives in Boston with her husband and new baby boy. Having NYC and Boston in such an easily accessible way was very influential. When she went to college, I was still in high school and could just hop on a bus for three hours to visit her for the weekend. Her friend dyed my hair for the first time; bright red with Manic Panic dye. This started a whole new phase of my appearance; regularly dyeing my hair any color I could find throughout the remainder of high school. Until Rachel moved to NYC, my only exposure to “culture” was MTV — so laughable now : ).

My younger brother, Zachary, has been a computer person since we got our first computer when he was 11 or so. He taught me quite a bit about computers early on and gave me my first introduction to HTML and web design.

My mother, Melody, is wonderful. She has been an RN in an ICU for more than 20 years. She and my father got divorced when I was two, and she put herself through nursing school while caring for three small children.

She showed me, through example, that women can do everything. We did a lot of work to our house as I was growing up. We installed drywall and gutted our kitchen so it could be remodeled when I was 13 or 14.

She encouraged me to paint my bedroom whenever I wanted. If I wanted a change, she would take me to Kmart to pick out a can of paint. Once, I painted these giant hideous sunflowers all around my room. They were so scary at night — they were my height and it looked like I was surrounded by people. That paint job did not last long.

The interior of our house was a very colorful and happy place. I painted the living room several times when she wanted it changed. We joke that the room is smaller now because it has so many coats of paint. Eventually, she had the exterior of our house painted light purple with dark purple trim and I painted the porch purple and green to go with it, the porch job involved stripping all the old paint, sanding, priming, and painting it. It was so much fun for me. When I got older and found that people actually dreaded such an undertaking, I was astonished–it was so rewarding for me to see the great outcome of all my hard work. I attribute my appreciation of hard work to her entirely.

My grandfather, Ken Snyder — he passed away last year — was a hobby woodworker and would create these elaborate, large-scale, wooden Christmas cutout displays that he would put in front of my grandparents’ home. He eventually started selling them to others in our hometown. He would have me paint all the faces and would pay me to do so.

I am freelancing in-house for Smithworks Design Communications in West Chester, PA and I’m also freelancing from my home office in Milton, DE.

I just moved to Delaware at the beginning of the month with my boyfriend, Eban. It’s quite nice living near the beach. We are about 20 minutes from Lewes, DE. Milton is a nice old town. Lots of old houses painted bright beautiful colors and built from really great materials, so they are meant to last, and they have nice big yards with old growth trees.

In five years, if freelancing continues to go as well as it has been, I expect to be doing that or perhaps starting my own studio.

In 10 years, I would definitely like to have my own business.

In 30 years, I want to be a bee-keeper.

My high school art teacher, Chet Davis, was great. He told me a 2-year school would not be enough for me; he was right. I thanked him for that advice later and made sure to tell him he was right, after all.

Professor Denise Bosler at Kutztown University has been very influential in my education and has really helped me along as I begin my career as a freelancer. Not only is she a brilliant and talented designer and illustrator, but she has an incredible ability to teach. My education would not have been as fulfilling had she not been there to guide me.

Also, it’s great to have been able to work with and learn from such a wonderfully talented and successful group of women as Professors Karen Kresge, Elaine Cunfer, and Vicki Meloney.

Fortunately, I was in school during what has, thus far, been the worst of the economic downturn. I’ve been busy since graduation in May of this year, so it hasn’t had much of an effect on me. Though my Roth IRA took quite a hit.

I’ve had many callbacks for interviews since graduation and have had several job offers. All were from contacts I met at the following portfolio reviews: New York City ADC, National Invitational Student Portfolio Review, Kutztown University Communication Design Portfolio Review, and the ADCMW Portfolio Review at CDIA.

I haven’t had to do any cold calls.

The DC creative community has been fabulous. I attended the ADCMW’s student portfolio review at CDIA in April and got really great feedback and suggestions for improving my portfolio. I also did an illustration for an article in FullBleed via Nick Whitmoyer, a contact I made at the DC portfolio review. I was also contacted by another designer I met at the review about a job opening.

I worked for Montgomery Signs, Inc. as the Senior Production Designer, for six years. When I told my employer that I would be returning to school to get my BFA in Communication Design, he replied with, “No one is going to pay you to be creative.” That was a pretty motivating statement. I know he meant it in a joking manner (with a hint of his actual opinion.)

I continued to work part-time at Montgomery Signs while I was in school, and I was glad to have that available to me. After his initial disappointment, he was very supportive of my decision to continue my education, and he and his wife attended my Senior Show to show their support and commend my effort. I think it’s important to receive that kind of motivating statement every once in a while, it keeps you sharp.

Best advice I’ve received? “KERN EVERYTHING!” Every professor I had in the Communication Design Department at Kutztown University told me that.

Best advice I can give? “There’s no reason to wait another year for school; go now, you’re going to love it!”

Learn more about Randi Meredith at http://randimeredith.com/ and http://www.behance.net/RandiMeredith