Natalie Younger

The first question one asks themselves when packaging anything is: what will it fit in? It’s the first piece of every puzzle: moving, packing the car, choosing the right purse. Life is constantly throwing us new games of Tetris to play. And packaging your facilities materials is no different.

This month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Erik Jensen, 3D artist and animator and longtime freelancer. Five years ago, when Jensen decided to take the jump and move to our fair city of Chicago, he unwittingly took the jump into full time freelance as well. “The job market wasn’t that great. I came up here and wanted another full time job, but no one was hiring, I wound up freelancing as default.” Five years later, he hasn’t gone back to the full time job hunt and, frankly, his freelance life is enviable for any freelancers who prefer to work offsite.

Consider your finance teams' role in your organization...

Creatives are a fascinating breed of beasts and, like any wild creature, you can learn a lot by studying them in their natural habitat. This, along with a deep-seeded fascination with people’s individual styles, the psychology of space/color and a general interest in everyone’s desktop knick knacks, is the inspiration behind Creative Spaces, a new blog series exploring creatives and their workstations.

Many winemakers, new and old, prefer oak barrels for aging and storage. There is an air of “this is how it’s always been done” that makes it hard to accept any other alternative. However, with an oak barrel shortage now persisting for three years, many winemakers have embraced the modernity of stainless steel wine barrels rather than pay through the nose for used oak.

Water scarcity is a real global problem. In the United States, seemingly boundless bodies of water such as the powerful Colorado River and the massive Lake Mead are drying up. Nearly the entire state of California is now classified as being under “extreme” and “exceptional” drought conditions.

In the summer of 2011, you answered the prayers of ...