I *heart* Google

Since I got elected to the Ad 2 National Executive Committee, as the Vice Chair, in June, I had to transition my role as the Chair of Ad 2 DC to my wonderful successor, Whitney Jarell. Since we do not have a shared network, I decided to explore some "free" Basecamps, to create an "Ad 2 DC Intranet," and pass along all my documents and resources to Whitney and the entire Ad 2 team.

After searching around I decided to test drive Google Sites. And, wow, I seriously love their setup. Granted, you do need to have a Gmail account to access the new Ad 2 DC Intranet... but it is awesome otherwise. It took me a few hours to get all my documents set up as a central database for Whitney and the Ad 2 crew. Our site is a private site, because we do have our budgets and strategic goals for the year posted, however I couldn't resist giving everyone a little sneak preview of how easy it was to get everything set up in a very short amount of time.

Oh, and did I mention all the Ad 2 documents are now saved as Google Docs and can be edited, reviewed and commented on through our new Intranet in real-time by everyone. Google has seriously helped the Ad 2 chapter maximize efficiency. All the team members can concentrate more on new ideas instead of administrative tasks.

Check out my screen grabs:

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Play Day Cards - So Much Color

One thing I love about design is using colors to make art. There are endless combinations. Creating the Play Day cards was an awesome experience, because I got the chance to use all my favorite colors! Below is a screen grab of what a Play Day organizer sees when they only have a few Play Day cards selected.

Check it out: http://playday.kaboom.org/projects/9-spartanburg-play-day/games

Weekend Art Projects - Part II

Three panel acrylic painting on canvas.

Weekend Art Projects - Part I

Created a new page of my "weekend art projects" - yep, I am a creative junkie. Check it out. Recently I've made some wall art and custom jewelry.

2009 Annual Report - My Favorite Pages (still in draft stages)

So, I am very diligently working on finishing the Annual Report for KaBOOM! - it has been an amazing project, because the organization has truly done some impressive work in 2009. Below are my current favorite layouts. I still need to create a cover design... final report will be available soon online and I can't wait to share it!


Numbers, numbers, numbers (check out the play stats!).

Play Matters Report

Another example of a research report KaBOOM! published in the Fall of 2009, that I designed for the organization. Here is a link to the optimized online PDF, to see the pages designed inside the Play Matters report.

Also, an ad that ran in the NRPA magazine to promote the publication...

Monitor Institute Case Study of KaBOOM!

Had the fun pleasure of designing the concepts and then producing the latest case study written by Heather McLeod Grant, author of best-selling Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits and by Katherine Fulton, partner of Monitor Group.

Web Button for Play Days

Designing promotional banners and buttons for the KaBOOM! website kaboom.org, as well as for our partner organizations (Mott's, National Public Lands Day, Boys & Girls Clubs, and Marines), to help them get the word out about Play Days. More variations to come... this is draft 1.

Better view of the Play Day landing page...

New design for the Play Day landing page. Whatcha think?

Play Day Landing Page and Play Day Cards

This is the second year of the KaBOOM! Play Day program. Last week I designed the website for the program (the look and feel) and our awesome programmer programmed the design. Below are some sample Play Day cards for organizers to use during their Play Day... just a few out of 52. If you want to host a Play Day yourself, get it registered on our new site.








Latest creative project...