Shari Neal ( Chicago, Il)- Aug 2010

Shari Neal attended college at the University of Missouri-Columbia and majored in Journalism.  In High School she participated in a summer program for fine art at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. She  interned at Draft in NYC as an art director, and after  graduation, she also interned as an art director intern at JWT Chicago.

wait… hol’up for a second…we COULD go the old “read the bio and go from there” route, but since we’re rebooting the franchise, we’re gonna break format for a sec, and let Shari introduce herself…in her OWN words.  Shari, you may fire when ready…

Hi everyone! My name is Shari and I am a lifelong Chicagoan, though the entire rest of my family is from Belize. I’m a web/Flash developer by day at an advertising agency and a freelance graphic designer when time permits. You may have seen some of my work out there. I designed the site for Black Girl With Long Hair (http://www.bglhonline.com) and the logo for Afrobella (http://www.afrobella.com). Currently, almost all of my time goes into my online shop, Bon Bon Vie (after the T.S. Monk song of the same name). I’ve always had an unhealthy obsession with tee shirts, so I figured, why not design some myself? I currently have a few designs on the site, but will be rolling out more slowly but surely.

I currently work at Abelson Taylor, a pharmaceutical advertising by day as an interactive developer doing mostly Flash development, and in my spare time, I do a lot of freelance work (art direction, graphic & web design, t-shirt design, wordpress development). My online portfolio is located at http://www.cargocollective.com/sharineal. I just started an online t-shirt shop called Bon Bon Vie (http://www.wearbonbonvie.com) , so that is my baby at the moment.

See? that was cool, right? Welcome to the August 2010 edition of Ten2One. This time we’re headed back to the Windy City, to meet Designer extraordinaire Shari Neal. (The kid is BAAAD, ya’ll). So sit back, read on and check out a little bit of this-n-that, as we find out about Rocawear jackets, the exorbitant cost of Concert Tickets, Teenage Photo ID’s, and some of the good things you can find in the dumpster behind Dunkin’ Donuts.

1- What movie character do you identify with the most?

Halle Berry as Angela in “Boomerang”. I always liked the fact that she was an artist/art director at an advertising agency and she wasn’t flashy…she was just a behind the scenes creative type, kind of like me.

2- What did you buy with your very first paycheck?

I bought a female Rocawear baseball jacket. It was really freaking expensive. Even by today’s standards. I bought it from one of those overpriced, “urban” mall stores. I still have that jacket in my closet as a reminder of what a dumb ass purchase it was.

3-What’s the funniest prank you ever pulled (or had pulled on you)?

This is kind of cruel and may even be crossing the line of prank territory, but I can laugh about it now . My brother used to tell me that I was found in the dumpster behind our apartment in a Dunkin’ Donuts box and my real family abandoned me. I would ask, “Why do I look like you, then??” He told me they got me plastic surgery and I was too young to remember it. And he somehow got my mom in on it. So he’d be like, “Mom, didn’t we find Shari in the dumpster?” and she’d say yeah. So I believed that lie for a really long time.

4- What was the hardest thing you ever had to learn?

That getting a high paying job out of college is not something that just happens. Nobody in their right mind wants to pay a 21, 22 year old Journalism major $70,000 a year. My first real paycheck made that very clear.

5-What was the cheesiest clothing trend you wore as a teenager?

I had a silver velour mock turtleneck. That thing was awful in hindsight, but back then I thought I looked pretty hot. I wore it in my 8th grade Whitney Young i.d. photo, so I’ll always have the memories. I was also into animal prints and camouflage.

6-What’s the ONE item you can’t live without?

My laptop. It’s my livelihood.

7-What are the ingredients for the perfect Road trip?

Good music and good friends.

8-What song lyric describes you at the moment?

“I’d like to think the best of me/
is still hiding/
up my sleeve.”

John Mayer, “No Such Thing”

9- What’s the best Birthday gift you ever got?

I got Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation tickets and a new pink bike for my 6th birthday. You couldn’t tell me shit after that. However, my mom was quite pissed that I fell asleep at the concert 3 songs in. I was constantly reminded that the tickets weren’t cheap.

10- What’s the easiest way to bribe you?

With food, it’s my Kryptonite. I am an overweight man on the inside.

Parting Shot:

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.”
— Tupac Shakur

you can catch up with Shari and view some of her work here:

http://www.wearbonbonvie.com
http://www.cargocollective.com/sharineal
http://www.facebook.com/bonbonvie
http://www.twitter.com/ShariBonBonVie

and you can do yourself ( or your ol’ lady ) a favor and buy one of these:

~ by ten2one on August 4, 2010.