Working at Merida has definitely been a new and exciting experience! I never thought that I would be paid to make patterns, which is one of my favorite hobbies. This summer I created the company’s new business cards which started as actual rug samples. The designs were chosen from some of Merida’s most popular patterns for rugs from their Viewpoint and Tufted Glow Collections. For each design, I outlined the pattern (from the digital rug design) in Illustrator and adjusted the dimensions to fit within each card.
Below are the final graphics - Viewpoint’s Tulip and Dandelion designs, and Glow’s Prism and Refraction designs.
The second major project I worked on was helping create surface designs for Merida’s Hospitality Collection. I was asked to create a range of simple geometrics to organic florals. My first design was inspired by the traditional pinstripe. Making the pinstripe designs were actually the most fun because I could arrange the colors in so many different ways.
On my last day at Merida, I set up my entire portfolio for Maegan to critique. It was a ton of work. We spent over an hour going through it all! She helped me plan for submitting my portfolio when applying to colleges this Fall. We invited all the Merida employees to come in and view the work I accomplished this summer.
More about the students from Youth Design Boston can be viewed here at youthdesign.org
Denise Korn, principal of Korn Design in Boston and founder of the non-profit Youth Design Boston, asked me if I’d be interested in mentoring a YD intern for the summer. Denise organized YDB to encourage and support talented high-school students interested in the arts. This program gives top young artists the opportunity to work in a real-world office environment.
I was lucky enough to hire graphic designer, Stacy Arman. Stacy has devoted her time to creating graphics for Merida’s new business cards, as well as developing patterns for rug designs.
Here’s Stacy in action working on designs for Merida’s Hospitality Collection!
Please check back to read blogs posted by Stacy about her experience here at Merida.
