After an extremely competitive selection process Middlebury College was selected to participate in the 2011 Solar Decathlon and became the first undergraduate liberal-arts college to be selected. As webmaster I worked closely with the graphic design team to design and build the team website. During the competition this past September, Middlebury finished 4th overall and won the communications sub-contest of which the website was a major component.

A good friend of mine, Syd Schulz, started Traction to share the stories of the women in mountain biking. She writes “We are eager to share our love of bikes. Traction is a place to share our stories and show the rich contributions women have made as professional racers, beginners, shop owners, coaches and everything in between.” I offered to help her design and build the site and this is what we came up with.

In late 2010, I heard about a job advertised as “The Ultimate Mountain Gig.” It was a three month post at The Canyons resort in Park City, UT with a $40,000 salary and free lodging, equipment and a ski pass. To apply, you were to submit a two minute video explaining why you were the perfect candidate. I decided a two minute video really wasn’t enough for a job like this, so I built an entire website for my application. I was not chosen for the job, but I had a great time designing the site.

For 2012 my team’s sponsors requested more subtle colors so I chose white and black as the base and blue for one sleeve. I continued my tradition of using an asymmetrical design and but combined it with straight lines and geometric shapes to give the kits a more professional look. By making just one arm blue, I made the jerseys easily recognizable from afar without an excess of color.

After the success of the kits the previous year, my team again asked me to design our jerseys and shorts. Once again I used bright colors because they made the kits easy to spot from a distance. This year though, I chose to make both the front and back geometrically asymmetrical instead of only the back. The team had another great year and the kit made quite a few podium appearances.

As the team member with the most design experience, I was chosen to design the team kits. I decided to use bright colors to stand out from the other teams at races and used different colors on the right and left sides of the kit to give it an asymmetrical look. People liked these kits because of how bright they were and how well you could recognize them from far away.