Field Report for Marion Duignan - August 2009

Time is flying so fast, I can't believe it!

New Mexico is absolutely beautiful and I love where I live and all the people I'm meeting and working with.

I'm working at the Media Literacy Project located in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the organization was formerly known as "New Mexico Media Literacy Project"). I've arrived at a very exciting time for the organization. They are in the midst of their organizational strategic planning and are in the process of creating a new mission, vision, and guiding principals. The plan also includes their organizational goals, objectives, and tactics (activities) for the next five years.

Part of the more immediate changes is/was their name change as mentioned above. As I'm here to update their existing main web site from plain HTML to a more efficient content management system (CMS)- the change in name meant a new logo had to be designed, which in turn will dictate the new look and feel to the site. For the last two weeks I've been in the process of designing their logo. We've had three meetings so far and the final logo review will be this Thursday, September 3rd. The final, FINAL okay will be left to the Director when she returns after the Labor Day holiday.

Prior to these last two weeks of logo consumption - I did training for Joomla! (My choice for CMS.) This took a good week to get through and I'm sure I'll have to go over sections again when I actually get started on the web site design itself next week. I highly recommend the Joomla! training dvds from lynda.com - there are a set of three that go together and for the most part seem to cover every aspect of how their version of CMS works and most important (for a designer)- how to customize the templates.

Last week I knew I had finally "really" settled in because I wrote postcards to friends and family and didn't go to Lowes, Target or the Big Lots store for apartment stuff : )

I feel very fortunate to be where I am for many reasons - not the least of which is working with my fellow VISTA Candelario Vazquez. He is so much fun and in the first couple of weeks here we really helped eachother make it to the first paycheck!!

So, by this time next month I hope to be telling you all about my trials, tribulations and triumphs working with our new logo on the new web site.

That's it for now. Peace.