Member profile: Melanie Zobeck

Ed note: Melanie submitted all of her answers in pink. 

Job title: graphic designer

Which means: communicating with visuals rather than text, and enhancing text with visuals.

What do you like most about your job? besides my sweet iMac, working on diverse projects, and having a supervisor that encourages creative thinking

What's an average day like? gazing at a large screen, plugged in with headphones... I dive into a project. I do at least a dozen google image searches and thumbnail sketches everyday. I problem solve and spatially rearranging as often as Pandora has ads (which is a lot, and more than necessary). When I grab my prismacolor colored pencils or xacto knife it's as normal as someone else grabbing a calculator or opening a word document. My virtual canvas in InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop gets filled with ideas that I bring to the client to be critiqued and then I refine for a final design. I work closely with my supervisor and communication colleagues who write the content for anything that has text... thank goodness, because I'm not a writer.

Is there an aspect of your job that's fulfilling? being able to come to work everyday and love what I do: solving design problems, working towards an end product, working with print materials, and expanding my knowledge by being forced outside my design "comfort zone"

How does what you do support the mission of the University? designing for Academic Support Resources (ASR) I have a diverse audience, ranging from the President and Provost to students and parents. I support the University's mission everyday through designing visuals for that audience. The designs are sometimes aesthetically pleasing, and other times my designs help to convey important information... information that helps make decisions about research, discovery, teaching, and learning.

I have been at the University since: student from 2004-2009, professionally from 2010-present

Why did you join the Forum and how are you involved? I was first introduced to the Forum as an Intern. My supervisor was on the committee and she let me do all the fun projects, including the program for the conference. I had such a great experience working with the committee, when it was presented to me to be on the committee this year I was excited to get involved again.

Family members: a crazy dog, a sister (and cat) that abandoned me for Williston ND, supportive parents, and a boyfriend

Hobbies: downhill skiing, eating sushi, shoe shopping, and downloading apps

What/who is your muse--what inspires, enthuses or drives you? the color pink, to be specific Pantone 226 C. I try to keep it minimal in my work, but when surrounded by pink I can't help but to be inspired!

People are always surprised to learn that I: used to HATE pink!

Where's home? La Crosse, WI

How would you like to be remembered (it's never too soon to think about mortality! Yay!)? As a creative mind who was slightly outspoken and loved pink!