Woodstock's First Community Garden/Farmer's Market?

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It just occurred to me that I never uploaded my final Neighborhood Event Poster project from my .ai class! Well here it is! It took a lot of time and tweaking to make it work, but I am quite proud of it. We started off the project with brainstorming plausible neighborhood event ideas and narrowing them down. I came down to: Movie in the Park, Farmers Market/Community Garden (Hey! They're kinda similar, and I couldn't quite yet choose), and Woodstock Festival (which is real). After creating thumbnails for these events, we narrowed it down to once choice, and recreated 3 more tight roughs. I went in the direction of Farmers Market/Community Garden, eventually narrowing it down to a Community Garden (duh). I love the Woodstock neighborhood and have noticed that many of our neighbors have gardens, so I thought it would be the right thing to do. So I went with it, got this, and voilà! Did I mention I passed my class with an 'A'? Yeaaaaah, baby!
Anyway, I've kept checking up on Woodstock's website because I've been curious as to what's been going on at the corner of Woodstock and 52nd, and, well you know, I wanted to stay updated (They're building a 7-11 + enough space for a few other stores, still TBD). And then somewhere I read something about the beginning of a Woodstock Farmers Market. WHAT?! So I found the site, freaked out seeing that they needed Graphic Design Volunteers, and immediate filled out the volunteer form. HOW. PERFECT. Right?! I didn't hear anything back, so I e-mailed them last week, with the logo and event poster I did, and finally got a reply! I should be meeting up with them in a couple of weeks to see what needs to be done, etc... And.... I'm basically freaking out. I am SO excited! Honestly, at first it was because I just wanted to add more stuff to my portfolio, but now it's not even about that. I'm highly supportive of locally grown food and crafts, etc... but I also am falling in like with this neighborhood. I believe that when you're working on a project that you're looking forward to doing, you'll do the absolute best work you can do; and I believe this is one of those times.
Wish me luck!

Design is about everything.

Sometimes I feel like I won't be good enough. There are so many people out there, especially in this recession, going to school [for Graphic Design]. And if you live in Portland, everyone has some kind of creative edge, so what do you have that other people don't? I ask that question to myself every day. Maybe I don't have an edge on everyone else. Yet. But I guess, in a way, starting this blog is a way to have that edge.
I can't get design out of my mind. I find myself analyzing and picking apart everything I see. Logos, brochures, cereal boxes at the grocery store, receipts, EVERYTHING. But after reading this article, it gave me a little bit of hope. If I'm not constantly dissecting everything I see, then what am I doing? 

I have also been reading Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut for the past couple of weeks, and it's already inspired me to new levels. I'm not finished yet, not even half way through, but it's inspiring to me in so many ways. Bierut ends a chapter saying, "Not everything is design. But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: Be ready for anything." I feel that it leads into the next chapter, which in a round-about way, explains that design isn't just about design. Design is about literature... It's about science, the local farmer's market, math club, economics, music, recycling, etc... In order to design well, you need to understand the components of what you are designing for.
After reading some of these essays, exploring design websites, and maaaybe playing a little bit of TypeWar, it makes me feel a little bit better that I will one day be a successful designer. There are many things I want to learn in my life. I need to remember I'm young and still have many years ahead of me to do so. With Graphic Design as my future, I feel that it will go hand-in-hand with each other and I will be able to do what I love, while constantly learning new things until the day I die.