Author Archives: alainaoneal

I'm a graphic designer

Society for News Design

IPEX_Thumbs

In March 2015, I received a phone call from my boss informing me that our team had won one of the highest awards in the world of news design — We were honored with an Award of Excellence from the Society for News Design in the category of Print & Digital news. This is truly a huge honor and it was definitely a team effort. Many thanks to the Times Free Press Presentation Editor, Matt McClane, for kick-starting the design and allowing me to carry it to print. Obviously we wouldn’t have been able to do this project without such great photography and writing by Doug Strickland and Kate Belz, respectively. There are a few others that deserve mention, and you can view their names here. This is also a truly touching story with many amazing visuals. View the online project here. I am grateful to work with such a team of talented individuals and am excited to be IN the 36th annual SND book — a book I’ve looked to for inspiration since I started in the biz!

Review: The Egg and I ‘egg-ceeds’ expectations

The Spinach Bacon Mushroom Omelette at The Egg & I on Gunbarrel Road was stuffed with the promised fillings and plenty of cheese. It’s served with an English muffin and a choice of sides, such as ranch potatoes.
The Spinach Bacon Mushroom Omelette at The Egg & I on Gunbarrel Road was stuffed with the promised fillings and plenty of cheese. It’s served with an English muffin and a choice of sides, such as ranch potatoes.

You don’t have to ponder the age-old chicken/egg question at The Egg & I, whose name alone shows you where this restaurant stands on the issue.

The Egg & I specializes in a wide variety of breakfast items, including — surprise, surprise — omelettes, benedicts, scrambles and just about any other food items with eggs you can imagine in any shape, form and fashion.

If you’re not a fan of eggs, however, don’t let that deter you from enjoying a tasty breakfast (or lunch). This restaurant also has a wide variety of options that don’t include anything egg-related, including pancakes, salads, sandwiches and even burgers.

The Egg & I is fairly new to the area, opening in the East Brainerd area about six months ago, according to our waiter. The franchise hatched in Colorado in the late 1980s, and there are only a handful of The Egg & I locations in Tennessee, mostly around Knoxville and Nashville. After trying it for the first time, I’m glad they decided to nest in Chattanooga.Continue reading “Review: The Egg and I ‘egg-ceeds’ expectations”

Designer’s desk: The conclusion

logoIt’s almost that time of year again.

In a few short days, a new year will be upon us, and the promise of a fresh start will arrive with it. Millions of people will soon be making new resolutions. Perhaps some will vow to pay off debt. Others will promise to travel to new places. We all (hopefully) will try to live a healthier lifestyle — and we will probably succeed for at least the first two weeks of January.

And as we prepare to embark on this clean slate, it is only natural to reflect on the past year as well.

For me, that’s easy to do — at least since June, when I began writing this column.

My resolution going into 2014 was to have new experiences. And halfway through the year, I realized I hadn’t been following through.

I was far too busy living a monotonous routine. I worked a 9-5. On the weekends, I would do the same activities with the same group of friends. Monday nights were reserved for The Bachelor and Wednesdays were for Modern Family. I went to the same gym and did the same workouts on the same three days a week. I stayed busy, and I was comfortable. But I was also bored.

I realized one of my greatest fears in life was perhaps becoming stagnant. And by mid-year 2014, as I began to reflect on how quickly time was flashing before my eyes, I realized that 2015 would arrive quickly, and I would have little to show for it if I continued on the same path.

I am proud to say that the last half of the year did not have the same result.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: The conclusion”

Designer’s desk: Addicted to social media

This week I decided to use my smartphone smarter.

I gave up social media for one week (on my phone and computer), namely the trifecta of distraction — Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

In lieu of wasting time on these apps, I vowed to use my new freed up mobile time using apps that teach me useful things — such as iBooks, Duolingo, the Washington Post and maybe even a little iTunes U.

I sent an obligatory text to my parents, my sister and a couple of other close friends to let them know what I was up to so they wouldn’t think I had fallen off the face of the earth.

My sister actually liked the idea so much that she decided to boycott her social media sources for a week, too.

Courtesy of some-ecards
Courtesy of some-ecards

Our week-long journey had both ups and downs.

At first, I noticed that I got out of bed a little faster than usual since I didn’t check four different news feeds before my feet hit the ground. I was feeling confident — and I started to pity those around me who were glued to their phones. I happily lived my life without feeling like I had to share every moment of it.

On day two, I was invited to a dinner and met a few of my friends’ coworkers. A round of sharing Instagram usernames followed, and I felt compelled to explain why I wouldn’t be able to reciprocate a “follow” until next week. I also missed the photos that — I assumed — they posted from dinner that night. I hoped they were good photos too, since immediate untagging was not an option.

By mid-week, I noticed that my fingers kept idly wandering to the place on my phone where the apps used to be.

Also, due to work obligations, I had to miss a movie premiere that I had been looking forward to for several months. I immediately felt the need to publish my feelings, but I remembered that wasn’t an option. If you’re sad about something and no one is around to read about it, are you still sad?

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: Addicted to social media”

Designer’s desk: Having no roommates

logoAs I have mentioned previously, I have recently moved into a new apartment. My first week passed with some unforeseen obstacles, but perhaps the biggest transition for me has been living on my own for the first time.

It has had its ups and downs, but overall I have been basking in the benefits, and I have developed a list of eight of the best ones.

1 — I have mastered the art of squashing bugs. OK, that’s probably the worst “pro” on the list, but it is a big milestone for me. Before, if I spotted a bug of the scary variety, I would call upon my roommate to take care of it for me. With no one to call on but myself now, I have had to take care of a couple of new unwanted “roommates” crawling around my new apartment. I have been rather proud of myself for overcoming this fear. It was either that or start naming them.

2 — Toilet paper galore. It’s surprising how much faster the toilet paper runs out when living with others. I have barely had to use a whole roll since I’ve been here. However, I will admit I am not used to being the one who has to buy it. This could create a problem in the not-so-distant future.

3 — My food is my food. I no longer have to wonder if my bag of chocolates is mysteriously vanishing or if I did, in fact, eat all of them in the past 48 hours. Yes, apparently it’s all me. That — or the bug problem is worse than I thought.

4 — Chick-flick marathons. And lots of them. Is it football season already? Because I haven’t noticed. Sports Center is a thing of the past for me and my television. Since I have moved in, there has been nothing but a marathon of guilty pleasures like Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy — with just me and my previously mentioned chocolates.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: Having no roommates”

Designer’s desk: Apartments, appointments and broken phones

logoThis week I experienced something that most everyone does in his or her lifetime sooner or later: I leased my very first apartment on my own. That may seem a little surprising at this point — and yes, I have been out of the nest for quite some time now. However, currently my landlord is also my family member, and I have never had the opportunity to pick out my own place before. This week, I had my fill of that and more.

The first thing that I learned from my apartment search is that I have been spoiled for not having to conduct one until this point in my life. The quest took two long days over the course of two weekends with a different team of people each day. That leads me to the second thing I learned: I’m so very lucky to have a team of people who helped me find my new home.

I know it would have been exponentially harder by myself. I had no plan put together on Day One of my search. I expected to call up some apartments who would be excited for me to come by on a moment’s notice. I thought surely they would be ready to impress their prospective new tenant.

That was very wrong.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: Apartments, appointments and broken phones”

Designer’s desk: New experiences, old friends and your inner artsy side

I feel as though I have already learned a lot through my mid-year quest to have a new experience each week, and this week I learned that one of my good friends has an on-going quest of her own.

My friend Sara recently showed me her summer to-do list, which includes everything from going to the beach to writing a rap and recording a music video.Art and Friends

I loved that she had a list of her own. It’s been so fun for me to add new things to my regular routine and drag my friends along with me to do all these random things, and I had no idea that someone close to me was pursuing a similar goal.

Because the summer is sadly drawing to an end and many of her checkboxes are still empty, I decided to knock something off the list for her, and I picked painting on a canvas. I just didn’t tell her I was doing so.

We planned on meeting up for happy hour on an outside patio with two of our other friends, and I surprised them by bringing four small canvases with four paint markers.

We each took a canvas and marker and began making abstract designs. After some time, we each rotated our pens so that by the end of our rotations we each used all four colors.

My friend was so excited that I took it upon myself to randomly bring some art supplies to our regular get-together, and overall it went really well. It was reminiscent of a kindergarten class, especially with half of the group looking at the girl’s design next to her and copying elements from it. On the upside to that, the canvas pieces surprisingly went fairly well together when stacked up next to each other.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: New experiences, old friends and your inner artsy side”

Designer’s desk: Kicking it up

logoFor my new experience this week, I decided to kick things into high gear by taking my very first martial arts class.

This goal of trying new things prodded me to reconnect with an old Facebook friend whom I knew took Tae Kwon Do, and I asked him where I could start. He saw my request for a Taekwondo class and raised me a Jui Jitsu class.

While I wasn’t sure that I would still be standing after the first one, not to mention I had no idea what the difference was, I agreed to go to both. (As it turns out, Jui Jitsu doesn’t require much standing anyway — but I’ll get to that later).

I was really excited about trying a martial arts class. It’s actually always been something I’ve had a small interest in, yet never bothered to try. But as the time grew closer, more and more visions of getting kicked around by kids half my size started entering my head, and it dawned on me that I had no idea what I actually signed up for.

Luckily for me, my friend was very encouraging, and like my other new experiences, it was a very easy going, do-what-you-can type of atmosphere. Plus, the class was small and consisted of other working adults who were nice to me and didn’t kick me around.

Tae Kwon Do mostly focuses on technique, so I didn’t have to spar with anyone. It’s of Korean origin, and it mostly taught the proper form on kicking and punching — which makes sense because I also learned that the name itself translates to “the art of the hand and foot.”

I was surprised how many of my former “yoga skills” were incorporated throughout, since a lot of the technique involves balancing and attention to breathing. It was surprisingly very therapeutic, and in the beginning I even started to feel like a bit of a natural. But that was short-lived as soon as the instructor added a second step.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: Kicking it up”

Designer’s desk: Turning up the heat

logoI have never once had a workout and  thought, “Do you know what would make this great? A space heater.”

But apparently someone at some point did, and I can only assume that’s how hot yoga was invented.

The point of hot yoga is to help you sweat, which detoxifies your body. It is even thought to assist with weight loss, and after my first experience with it this week, I can assume that’s true — at least temporarily — given how much fluid your body loses during the one-hour class.

Overall, though, I enjoyed sweating profusely more than I expected.

The instructor began by saying that the class is a journey between you and your body. Do what your body feels like it can do.

That sounds comforting, but most of the time my fingertips don’t even feel like reaching my toes unless my knees are bent, so I wasn’t sure how many of the positions I could handle.

But that was OK. My goal was to try it with an open mind and a positive outlook. With most things in life, I got what I put into it.

So here’s some advice for my fellow yoga newbies:

  • If you have long hair, a tight bun on top of your head is the only appropriate hairstyle for hot yoga. You may try to start out with a cute little braid, like me, but that will last for about five minutes before you have to take a quick break to fix that mess.
  • I also suggest investing in your own yoga mat. In my class, there were mats available to borrow, which I believe is the case for most places. However, you don’t want to be thinking about how many other people sweat all over your mat while you’re doing a downward dog. (To ease the minds of my fellow germaphobes out there, we did disinfect them after the class.)
  • Also be sure to bring a towel to help dry your hands and wipe your face. Said sweaty mat will become a slip-and-slide before it’s over. I also recommend bringing water, and drink plenty of it before the class as well. You’ll want to stay hydrated.

Continue reading “Designer’s desk: Turning up the heat”