Career Exploration: Fashion Editor & Stylist

"I'm always on the job," Abigail Bruley says, laughing. She spreads back issues of the Philadelphia-based quarterly two.one.five magazine and printouts from a large, bright green binder that reads "fashion" on the spine in hand-drawn bubble letters across a large white table in the magazine's one-room office. She climbs onto the table, in high heels and a skirt, and lies down, her left hand resting on two.one.five's first issue, to have her picture taken.

Establishing this aesthetic for an impromptu Motivos photo shoot is, as Bruley points out, a continuation or the same duties she performs as fashion and music editor at two.one.five. These duties include everything from styling fashion shoots to writing gear reviews, from overseeing interns to brainstorming themes and ideas with editor-in-chief Piers Merchant.

Bruley, 27, says she's working her dream job.

The story of how she got her dream job is not very interesting, she says. She was attending a weekly meeting for another magazine at a South Philly coffee shop and ran into Matthew Bacine, one of the publishers of two.one.five, an acquaintance. In conversation, Bruley revealed that she worked in magazines and Bacine asked if she would join his team. She did.

This article appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Motivos magazine, in the Career Exploration section. Email me at rosellaeleanor@gmail.com to see a PDF file of the entire article.

Career: Industrial Designer

Imagine the rush you would feel, opening a magazine to find a picture of Jessica Alba using the camera you designed. Or picture a young boy, seated on the floor, playing with a toy robot you designed, a look of complete joy on his face. Such are the thrills and rewards of a career as an industrial designer. For LaVonne Strand, Chief Operating Officer of STRANDesign, both of these situations are a part of daily life.

Industrial design is the process of learning what the client wants, what unique specifications must be followed and figuring out how to take a product from concept to a physical reality. Strand has been working in the field of industrial design since he earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1989.

Strand sums up his ideas on good industrial design anecdotally: at a meeting an unnamed client described exactly what the company envisioned and Strand was able to do a quick sketch within minutes. The client liked this idea so much that Strand was whisked off to China for three days to oversee the execution of the product...

This is the first part of a 900-word piece I wrote for the Spring 2009 issue of Motivos magazine, a Philadelphia-based bilingual magazine. To read the full article, click here.

Small Business Resources

I compiled this sidebar for the Winter 2008-2009 issue of Motivos magazine. Click on the image above to see a larger version.