Vacation as Inspiration!

To us vacation is not just a time to relax it is a time to get inspired and bring those inspirations back home and put them to work!
Here are some great stories from our staff. These vacations inspired them in some way and is part of what makes them as creative as they are!

San Francisco My Long Lost Love by: Cortney Kreer, Designer

My best vacation I've had in recent memory was the long weekend I spent in San Francisco last year. I wanted to visit the city for almost my entire adult life, and when I got there for the first time it felt like I was coming home. Walking up and down the streets of the city and just people watching -- the old hippies, the street punks, the hipsters and the yuppies alike --- was inspiring simply because everyone was so different than the folks I was so used to back East. I heard of the West Coast Mentality but had never really understood it until I saw it and heard it. It was like finding my own voice in another, like meeting family I didn't know I had.

We stayed with a friend in San Rafael, in this quintessential West Coast mid-century modernist ranch house. He took us into the city by ferry and we saw the famous California fog. It looked like frozen ocean waves crashing from the middle of the sky onto the horizon. Later in the weekend we also drove into the city over the Golden Gate Bridge and passed by the mile markers and the suicide phones overlooking the dizzying drop into the Pacific.

Driving through the city, you could smell eucalyptus and ocean water on the air. Heat of the surrounding cars mixed with cool breezes from the bay.

On Saturday night we went out to DNA lounge for "Bootie" which is a mashup show that I follow pretty closely (bootiemashup.com). It was insane to be there finally after listening to the MP3s for however many years. I got to meet DJ Earworm, my all-time favorite mashup dj, and there was a live show where this guy came out dressed as a jelly donut and started rapping over the singing of a Debbie Harry impersonator.

We also got a chance to visit Amoeba Music, which is giant record store in the Haight-Ashbury district. I have loved the artwork on vinyl album covers since I was a child (looking at Queen's News of the World album stands out as my first terrifying memory) so this was a visual feast for me. We spent hours looking through vintage vinyl. I grabbed a copy of Starland Vocal Band's self-titled album for a dollar just because the typography was so cool. I later found out it included "Afternoon Delight" which is hilarious if you've ever seen Anchorman.

In my experience, I've found that things are almost never how I envision they will be. California was the only exception. San Francisco was exactly how I wanted it to be, and in ways it was even better. After the (all too short) weekend I spent there I was convinced that I would live there, and I still am convinced of that. I still think about the overwhelming sights and sounds and people and places and I long to be back there. So if I disappear and you never hear from me again, that's probably where I am.