Over the last two years my life has changed in ways that I can’t begin to explain in what I hope will be a short and sweet post. I’ve traveled all over the country, met my heroes, and hopefully, introduced you to a few worthy people and causes along the way. When I started at UnBeige I was terrified by this big scary design world that, frankly, I didn’t know nearly enough about. Now I look over there at that blogroll and I see a list of my dearest friends.

Thanks to the dearest of all those new friends, Steve Delahoyde, and that’s saying a lot since we have still never met in person. Steve is such an effortlessly funny human being–he is the only person in the world I can count on for a solid laugh at 7am–and I will miss being his partner in crime. But I would never have felt comfortable leaving if it wasn’t for one Stephanie Murg, who has leapt into this role with grace and wit. Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend Keith Scharwath, who provided me with so much support, advice and good tips that thanking him every time would have made it seem like he was writing this blog instead. Thank you to Jen Bekman and Eva Hagberg, who left gigantic, like, size 12EEE shoes to fill. Huge thanks to both Bryn Mooth and Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who recommended me for the gig in the first place. And to Laurel Touby, who has always been a big inspiration to me, but especially when she sold mediabistro.com for $23 million freaking dollars.

Finally, thank you to everyone out there who read this over the years, all 15 of you, even though four of you are my immediate family members and read this blog even though you have no idea what I’m talking about. I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing next (although I’m fairly certain you won’t find me anywhere near a computer for the next week or two), but you can always find out what I’m up to at my personal blog, Gelatobaby. And if you want to be kept abreast of my situation, just drop me a line at getthescoop AT gelatobaby.com. I’m sure we’ll meet again.

Love, Alissa

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s time to check back in with UnBeige’s founding mother Jen Bekman as the first piece by a designer in her 20×200 art store has hit the auction block, as it were.

HunterGatherer’s Todd St. John has produced the lovely print “Untitled (Black Blocks).” And if you think that’s a lot of wood, check out his opening titles for the Swerve Festival we spotted back in September, or this delightful little animation, “Circle Squared,” for T Magazine or like, everything at HunterGatherer. You may start to see a theme.

True to Bekman’s plan, the prints are tiered by size and limited-edition-ness: 200 for $20 each, 20 for $200, and 2 for $2000. We’d snatch up one of those $2000 prints right now if we were you.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Way back when in 2000, when UnBeige was just a twinkle in Jen Bekman‘s eye, Someguy (aka San Francisco designer Brian Singer) released 1000 journals out into the world. Seven years later, some of those journals are still circulating, their contents and travels documented on the website 1000journals.com. Lots more information here.

2007 saw two very interesting developments in the 1000 Journals project. A book, The 1000 Journals Project was published by Chronicle Books earlier this year, with incredible reproductions of journal pages. And this weekend in LA, a documentary, 1000 Journals will premiere at the AFI Fest. Directed by Andrea Kreuzhage, the film takes us around the world, tracking some of the journals in circulation and how they touched the lives chronicled in their pages. If you’re in LA this Sunday or Monday, you’ll have a chance to see the film, buy a book, meet Singer, and see some of the original journals. Tickets available here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In an incredibly synergistic encounter, Kate Bingman-Burt and Mike Perry will be appearing at a lecture and book signing tomorrow at Jen Bekman Gallery in NY. Why the synergy, you ask? Well, Bingaman-Burt’s show is up at Bekman’s gallery, and Perry has a new book out named Hand Job: A Catalog of Type. And, you can purchase both of their work in Bekman’s new 20×200 art store. And, Bingaman-Burt has some of her hand-lettering in Perry’s book!

We have a feeling these book signings will be a bit more involved (and beautiful) than the usual scribblefests. 3-5pm, Jen Bekman Gallery.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If there’s one person who keeps us going every day when we’re confronted with this crusty old keyboard and an empty screen, it’s UnBeige founder Jen Bekman. Because if this whole blogging thing doesn’t work out, we think, hey, maybe we’ll go on to run a famous gallery in New York. And maybe we’ll start a new affordable art experiment like 20×200, which just launched in semi-super-secret mode with artists like Kate Bingaman-Burt. And maybe it’ll get covered in magazines like Dwell and Good.

Although, we wonder, if we did all those things, would Bekman realize that we’re blatantly ripping her off?

Still…to dream.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’re counting down the days until UnBeige founder Jen Bekman releases her revolutionary experiment 20 x 200 that’s gonna flip the lid off the art world (psssst, site goes live on July 27). We hear some Very Important Artists are going to be a part of the project, which will bring affordable art to all. Bekman talks to one of our other favorite people, Rob Walker of Consumed fame, in this interview on Walker’s blog Murketing.

Anyone who talks about a piece of $20 art work as a “gateway drug of the art buying world” is worth a read, in our book.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When the first-ever conference focused on the Creative Economy was announced for October 24-25 in Fairfax County, Virginia, we got pretty excited…

Originality, innovation, inventiveness, imagination, artistic ability, resourcefulness–all are synonyms for creativity. But what does it mean to be creative and why is that attribute so important to businesses and communities alike?

…until we saw who we’ll be learning this from. So far, the lineup consists of three writers, an admiral in the Coast Guard, and two staffing/hiring experts. Because admirals in the Coast Guard are widely known for their artistic ability. And if anyone knows about imagination, it’s a headhunter.

As king of the Creative Class, Richard Florida will of course be there, and you can’t mess with NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. But all in all, the lineup seems horribly ho-hum, dreadfully contrived and the polar opposite of anything remotely creative. Not to mention old, old, old and male, male, male.

Jen Bekman, go get ‘em.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hotlanta delivered with a 90-degree day as we made our way to the sizzling little school we used to frequent only a few years ago. As always, the walls were slathered with fine work, the halls buzzed with laughter, Hank Richardson played tennis in a classroom, and students carted boxes of projects in various states of completion up and down the stairs. It was great to be back.

As promised to our incredible audience, we’re posting the links to the many, many people we noted in our presentation who’ve inspired us recently, which also reads like a Best of UnBeige list. Here goes: Steve Delahoyde and the cool kids at Coudal, Dave Werner and his killer portfolio, UnBeige 2006 Crush Ze Frank, Stefan Bucher‘s Daily Monsters, proud parents (of Speak Up and other little things) Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit, Materials and Applications, Treat Street (shhhh, don’t tell!), Jen Bekman and Hey, Hot Shot, Kate Bingaman and her Obsessive Consumption, the lovely Marian Bantjes, Sally Hogshead‘s Radical Careering, Debbie Millman and Design Matters (with Steven Heller today!), Eric Mahoney aka Samurai Love God, Dan Rollman‘s awesome t-shirts, Khoi Vinh‘s Subtraction, Nathan Davidson and his Unibrow, and Keith Scharwath, Aaron Rose and all of the Beautiful Losers.

Thank you to the kind people at the Portfolio Center for having us back and of course, to Ciao Bella Gelato, our favorite gelato in the whole wide world.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.