This next anecdote on the fun-filled ride of “Bijou’s greatest highs” is a bit of a side quest. I promise it is not wholly unrelated but a fairly distant relative to the real beginnings of my artist journey. It’s a fun story, however, and one that I have decided to share. So, saddle up your carriage and come on back to the same time period we visited last week in the beertastic town of Fort Collins, Colorado.
As we left off, I told you at this point in time my dreams largely revolved around hops, water, grains and yeast mixing and bubbling themselves into a delightful brew. My partner and I had picked up the part time passion of becoming “homebrewers”. We each delighted in tasting and “studying” the various ales and lagers the many breweries carefully crafted and cultivated. For the months that we had been in Fort Collins, I applied to as many breweries as I could and interviewed for a handful; each sending me off with a rejection notice in their own turn. The closest I had come to securing the coveted “beertender” position was with the brewery called “Funkwerks” that specialized in creating funky, fun sours and designs for their merch program. I had interviewed with the owner and unfortunately was on the wrong side of the win; I was a good candidate but not the best candidate for the job. Much like a friend-zoned wishful lover, I was sad to hear the news but accepted the friendly fate with an open heart. As the months rolled by in a tie-dyed haze, my partner and I finally landed on the conclusion that Fort Collins was not the place. We, instead, decided that the mountains were calling and that we must answer their roar…
Ironically, as is often the case with big decisions, immediately after the final decision was made to leave Fort Collins, my lovely ‘za slinging former co-worker who knew my love of ales, sent me a job posting for what happened to be one of my favorite breweries in the area—Jessup Farm Barrelhouse, or known as JFBH. I opened the posting just as the closing hour for entries was looming. It was just the Hail Mary I needed to throw. A quick email expressing my interest and hope to not of missed my chance with my ready-to-send resume attached did the trick. I was called to interview for the job. I had interviewed for quite a few breweries at this point so I went in with half a mind that I would still be moving to the mountains in a few months' time. Perhaps I could (or should have) done a bit of company history research before showing up to my interview in style with a major skier's goggles tan (and I'm talking major lower face burn with the pastiest of flesh on the upper half of my face). If I had done my research, it would surely have saved me the shock of finding myself face to face once again with the Funkwerks' owner as part of the duo interviewing me for a beertending position. Something that doesn’t rally a depth of confidence when you enter the tiger’s ring to interview with someone who had already rejected you that same year. Regardless, I decided I would give it a good swing and hope for the homerun.
I had comfort in the fact that since interviewing at Funkwerks some of my interests had changed, transformed and evolved. Art had by now firmly taken a hold as my main interest. My new dream was to combine my two loves, that for brews and design, to potentially design beer labels and merchandise for the breweries themselves. Leaning into this newly forged desire, when asked the question “where do you see yourself in 5 years” I had a new answer sitting on my cuff, one that I had no experience with or education on but would love to be given the chance to see it come to fruition. The magic words of “I would like to combine my interest in graphic design and art with my love of beer and be involved in designing beer labels or creating designs for breweries.” slipped through my lips on a whim. BAM—the magic words indeed. As it turned out, JFBH had just lost their main designer to (what I learned was) its sister-brewery Funkwerks (awkward I know), and so needless to say JFBH was in the market for someone that would not only beertend but take over their in-house graphic design program for their merchandise, event flyers and beer sign calligraphy. Talk about the perfect swing at a curveball! Before I knew it, I was accepting the position as resident graphic designer and beertender, two of my wildest dreams wrapped up into one beautiful barrel.
This was probably the first time in my life that I truly hucked a dream out into the universe, I was absolutely shocked to hear it answered so neat and quickly. I also realized this was a hell of a lunge for them to take on a girl that expressed her interest in art and design. I was honest about my previous professional experience with the design field to be non-existent, I had messed around with Photoshop during my "photography era" but had never taken any classes on design. I reiterated my dedication to learning more practical applications in the field because I loved to explore new ideas and concepts through my sketchbook. Even though it was crazy for the pair of them to put their faith in a girl's ability to create intriguing graphic design by the word of her without seeing any of her actual sketch work and designs, I am so thankful for the loco leap they took. I proceeded to try and live up to the privilege of gaining professional experience in the field I was interested in exploring. For the next year, I made sure to garner as much advice and knowledge of the position as I could from the previous designer. I bought books to help me with the creating aesthetic layouts for designs and improve my calligraphy so I could create unique and elegant scripts for our beer signs. I lightly experimented with different designs for our merchandise and found out which materials and types of clothing were the most likely to sell well. All in all, I went in with the mindset to take advantage of this chance and to make sure that I was acquiring the appropriate skills and experience that could help me in the future in this field as well as the present.
The time I spent as a graphic designing beertender was really lovely, I learned a lot and had a lot of ambition to improve and learn more about how to do my position well. I knew that the owners of JFBH took a big chance on me by thrusting me into this roll in full force when I had absolutely zero specks of experience in the design world, just a newfound interest and delight. I think the most important thing that I wanted to relay with this anecdote is that the strangest things can happen if you allow them to. If I had gone into that interview and continued to hide my interest in art and design, I would never have been given the opportunity to explore an exciting new pathway. It turns out that sometimes you can find yourself walking in your dream pair of shoes just by reaching out to try them on. It may not work every time, oftentimes, the job or the dream isn't what you imagined but the worst thing that could possibly happen is that it could have been you, but you were too scared to try to ask for what you want.
I hope you enjoyed our little side mission today and are ready to jump back to the main ride next Sunday at 10AM mountain time.
As always,
Keep it offbeat!
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