CourtneyP

My servers ate my last post, but meh, maybe it was meant to be because it was a meme. Oh well.

So today through Monday is a mini-vacation for me, which I am really excited about since I don’t really have to do anything. It’s gotten off to a good start already since I was able to wake up early enough to do stuff at home and still be able to go out before noon. There is really something to be said about having days off for the sake of having them off. Sometimes we just need that break from the everyday. It’s also a good time for me to do this since work is just starting to become hectic because of a few little events coming up. I like being busy at work though… I prefer it. The days go by faster and I feel productive.

I’ve heard a question arise between various people as of late, “What exactly do you do?” It’s funny that a lot of people I know do not know what each other does every day, for a living.

I thought I’d write a little bit about what I do for my day job, to answer this question.

My business card reads “Creative Services Specialist”… on first glance, no one can assume what I do just by reading that title. I can take it a bit further to be a bit more descriptive by telling people that I’m a Graphic Designer in Marketing. Although that is a good general description of what I do, it doesn’t necessarily encompass what I do at the office.

I am part of a small three-person department-within-a-department called the Design Studio. We are three graphic designers by trade that work on a lot of internal projects as well as promotional pieces (in-store, direct mail, some ads) for our products, mainly our hardware and most of our software titles.

Of course, our biggest thing every year is E3, which my small department of approximately 15 people solely organizes our massive booth and party, from conception to construction and everything in between. My specific duties include management of the master list of titles being shown and placement of them on the floor, all the graphics for individual game kiosks. Once at the expo, my department is also the core of the setup and teardown crew, and we also man the booth pretty heavily during the show. There of course is a lot more to what we do at E3, but I’ve described the majority of what I’m involved in there.

Another large part of my job is what I describe as a translator between our outside vendors (printers, agencies, etc.) and departments within our company. In order to get projects done, someone has to be able to translate design and print-speak to non-designers, as well as communicate what we need back to the vendors.

Wow, this ended up sounding kinda like a cover letter, heh. Hope it was interesting and informative at least. But I’d like to hear the same from those of you who want to/can share the same info. So… what is a typical day at work like for you?

Huh, funny that I blog about work on my day(s) off.

One of the things that really appealed to me about my current job is the print-centric nature of it. I have been doing too much work in the past few years that was web-centric, and my roots are most certainly in print.

Earlier this week, I had to attend a press check at a print house for some work-related materials. Call me weird, but I really enjoyed the experience.

Mind you, it’s been many years since I’ve been in a print house, surrounded by these massive presses churning out materials at high speed. I used to work at a magazine publisher back in HI, which was conveniently located upstairs from our print house, so I would do press checks all the time. But that was many many moons ago.

There’s something about the smell of the papers & inks, and the droning sounds of the machines made me feel like I was in my element again. The whole experience engaged my senses and  I guess it brought back a lot of memories of my work in the printing industry.

A seemingly mundane work task ended up being a walk down memory lane and made me feel like I was really in the right job for me.

Or perhaps the ink fumes were making me high. *koff*

Ahh. I am home.

The lazy-blogger’s posts is typically bullet-pointed, but I feel like it is worth sharing my thoughts on my first E3 (attending *and* working)…

• My team from work runs like a well-oiled machine. Set-up and Teardown were a breeze because of all these great people. I really enjoyed working with everyone, and meeting people from our worldwide offices. Over this past week, having spent more time with my co-workers than I ever have, has helped me feel more like a part of the team. Spending personal time with them as well has helped glue us all together a little bit more. It’s definitely a good thing.
• When the lights and sound go on, E3 is sensory overload. It’s nonstop noise and flashing lights, with every major booth trying to outdo the other. Seriously worse than Vegas, but heck, I enjoyed it. It makes one feel like a kid again.
• Even though I didn’t get to linger at many of the booths, I was fortunate enough to be able to walk the floor and skim the booths. It’s really great to see so much creativity at work.
• Working the booth was actually pretty fun. Compared to all the work and stress we endured leading up to this point, booth duty was a piece of cake. Absorbing the energy of all the fans is fun and makes me remember one of the major reasons why we do what we do. I certainly had my share of snobby and pretentious fanboys, though, but that didn’t get me down at all.
• Attending the closing reception of the 8 Bit Weapon (the first band on the Intellivision Music label) perform and drank cocktails poured by the Suicide Girls, while sampling old-school game ports to modern consoles. I also made Pink’s. When in Rome…
• The company party was a freakin’ blast. Working for an entertainment company has its perks, I suppose. They really know how to entertain 5,000+ people, with the party taking place at the Dodger stadium mesa. With Jimmy Eat World kicking things off, to the Mexican wrestling (Lucha!), the neverending (and everchanging) buffets, to open bars with killer kamikazes, life was quite good that evening.
• My favorite part about these events is for definitely meeting and hanging out with people. Meeting a few of the LA Metblogs crew at the most excellent Golden Gopher lounge; sharing booth duty stories with Caryl; meeting and chatting with Tom‘s friends at Mind Candy & learning about their Perplexcity project; hanging out with Ernie, Ryan and the Gaymers; grabbing good cheap mexican food with my friend Cecil and seeing EpIII; and of course, rooming with Nicole.

I’ve put all my E3 photos into a Flickr photoset, so please feel free to peruse my E3 experience in pictures. My only (minor) regret is that I didn’t have more people pictures, more pictures of and with my friends, but I guess I was just using that time to actually be with and talk with them.

Today is the last work day before E-Day.

I leave on Monday to assist in setting up for the biggest, baddest geekfest of the season, and I’ll be in the L.A. area for the entire week. The days leading up to this have been pretty frantic, and today is basically the eye of the tornado… the office is fairly quiet and things are pretty much set for transporting down south. Once we get there, it’s probably gonna be a non-stop madhouse though.

I’m reminded of Buzz’s thoughts on Macworld this year, in which he states that it can be hard to be an enthusiast of the company you work for (and its products). Over the past couple of months, everything turned into words, spreadsheets, blobs of color and other logistical junk that kinda dulled my enthusiasm for a short period of time. Last week, I started reading rumor sites, forums, and other fan sites that showed me how much everyone is looking forward to what we are bringing to the show, and how much enthusiasm is really out there. Luckily, it’s infectious and I’m hyped up again!

If you are in or from the L.A. area, I’d love to meet up with you. I have organized a Blogerati Get-Together on next Tuesday, which is a completely casual event at a cool local lounge.

Watch for updates here and in my Flickr photostream as next week progresses. Should be a ton of fun!