Carbondale is a very special place. My husband, Dave, and I moved here as newlyweds over 32 years ago looking for a more affordable housing option than our basement apartment in Aspen. As we grew our family to welcome our daughter, Elizabeth, and our son, Zack, we experienced the bond of Carbondale’s community through the myriad of activities available in our schools and athletic and artistic organizations.
I’ve worked at most of the Roaring Fork Valley’s newspapers over the years, including the Aspen Daily News, Glenwood Springs Post Independent and the Valley Journal (VJ). When the VJ was shut down in December 2008, I felt the severe loss of our local rag. When The Sopris Sun rose onto the scene, I jumped at the chance to design for the new nonprofit gem.
I had the honor to hold the position of graphic designer for the first 10 years of The Sopris Sun. In addition to keeping the community informed of local news, we carried on some traditions of the VJ such as the annual Mother’s Day special issue where new mothers and their babies grace the pages of the paper. We also featured the annual Christmas cover contest for our local young artists to know the excitement of seeing their work get published.
For The Sopris Sun’s 10th anniversary, I designed and created a line of newspaper garments seen in Carbondale Arts’ Green is the New Black Fashion Extravaganza. The theme was “Wizard of Oz” and with help from volunteers to cut, curl, weave, roll and sew, we created costumes for Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch of the North, Scarecrow, Lion and the Tin Man — all highlighted on the stage in 2019.
After the paper’s 10th anniversary I felt a need to expand my professional knowledge and moved onto the graphic design position at Gran Farnum Fine Printing in Glenwood Springs. In that time I joined The Sopris Sun board to provide a staff and historical perspective. I also worked on the fundraising committee to expand and refine the outreach in our fall appeal mailings in addition to creating the 2020 and 2021 annual reports. I was honored to work with hardworking board members Kay Clarke, Gayle Wells, Donna Dayton, Klaus Kocher, Linda Criswell, Eric Smith, Meghan Tackett, Lee Beck, Roger Berliner, Elizabeth Phillips, Jesse Rochel, Andrew Travers and Anna Huntington.
I am grateful to the artists who designed the pages of The Sun over the past five years: Ylice Golden, navigating through COVID and creating systems for remote work, and Hattie Rensberry, assisting the past couple of years while also holding down the news desk at KDNK. A special thanks to Will Grandbois who has always been willing to lend a hand with his writing, photography and design talents.
Now, as this paper has entered its 15th year, I am honored to be back as lead editorial designer. I’m so excited to be working with our incredible staff, contributors, board members and volunteers. Our editor, Raleigh Burleigh, in addition to keeping our readers informed and engaged, continues to be a conduit for innovation by implementing el Sol del Valle, our youth journalism program and Works in Progress. James Steindler, contributing editor, crafts his stories from the heart and a place of curiosity, sharing important knowledge both in print and online with his weekly email blasts. Todd Chamberlin keeps this nonprofit thriving with his expertise in ad sales and in his role as executive director. Lee Beck who not only serves on the board but also works tirelessly along with a team of proofreaders — Tracy Kallassy, Ken Pletcher and Hank van Berlo — to keep the paper free of misspellings and grammatical errors. Emily Blong continues to promote local businesses with her creative advertising designs. I look forward to designing beautiful pages with our new el Sol del Valle editor, Bianca Godina, and our many incredible contributing writers, photographers and artists.
You may notice some changes to our design this week and in the weeks to come. I have refreshed some of our typography and design elements to give a little flair. I chose a modern yet playful font with its high-contrast strokes and serifs for the headlines. The body copy is easy to read and provides a good variety of style and weights which contrast well to differentiate the fonts used in bylines and cutlines. I hope you enjoy these changes. As I click my heels and layout this new issue in my hometown, I can’t help but feel there’s no place like home.