This winter I got the chance to stay at my aunt and uncle’s awesome new house in our village. Now, back in the states, they’ve challenged me with creating a web site for their house. I’ve gone back and forth on the design and learned a few things in the process.

The more people stay at their vacation home, the more work I get to do. For now, page is a work in progress; there's always new blog posts to add/edit, and images come at varying speeds during the year.

I actually got excited for the first time about my hair! I have had a natural since I was about 18–after my 4 year experiment with perms. Now I’m a 29 year old grad student in Baltimore with a fro and yet another reason to love my hair. In my Editorial Style class our final project is to create a newsletter targeting a certain group/niche audience and write for them. The actual physical newsletter ends up being an afterthought when the writing-editing-re-writes are done. Since it’s a group project I latched onto the group with the topic that held the most interest for me; it turns out that a fellow student had recently embarked on the journey to natural, healthy, nappy hair and wanted to share her experience. Thus, the hypothetical quarterly “Good Hair” was born.

In writing and researching my 4 articles, I found several resources that I had neglected:

• youtube how-to videos
  
• natural hair blogs and forums
  
• salons that cater to unprocessed crowns
  
• books that advise and support
  
• other women with kinky dos willing to share their knowledge
  
• information, information, information.
  

I got excited again. The attached jpegs are 4 newsletter pages. They are student work and contain ultra-low res borrowed images.

Here are a few Wrong Answers: 

1. "In five years I plan to be the director of marketing at this company, managing a small but innovative team--working to grow the brand of this company." Is this even an option within the company or department where you're applying. Unless you're 100% sure, that your vision for the company is in line with their strategic plans, goals and direction, this goal shows inflexibility. It also connotes a low opinion of the current 'brand'. 
2. "Hmm, with this busy final semester and graduation, I haven't really had time to think about it." This answer will likely prompt a few follow up questions that you really don't want to answer...What have you had time to think about? Realistically, this answer shows a lack of vision, planning, and creative thinking. 
3. "Well, in a few years I hope to be back in school working on my MFA in order to become tenured faculty at X University." This answer states, without stating, that you are killing time in the potential job. You are either looking a company to pay for your advanced degree or a place to wait until you get into grad school. 

How about the Right Answer:

1. Figure out your personal costs, cost of living, student load debt, etc. 
2. Find out comparable companies in your region pay their graphic designers, and 
3. Balance that information against your personal strength as a designer.