Hey there, I'm Kelly Carnes, the only current Matchstic-eer without a Y chromosome. I grew up thirty minutes south of Atlanta and went to the same elementary school as my grandmother (different building of course). So you could say I've got some serious Georgia roots.

It's definitely been a long (metaphorical) road to get only thirty miles up the street. My kindergarten/ first grade teacher had a huge influence on the path I took. She had us illustrate scenes from children's books that she read aloud. From then on I told everyone I wanted to be a children's book illustrator.

I grew up with computers and became pretty skilled at spending more time designing school projects than actually doing them. It wasn't until high school that I found out about design.  I ended up taking Graphic Design as an elective all four years. After that I attended the University of Georgia and graduated in '09 from their Graphic Design program in the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

After that I began researching to see if any design firms that I admire were taking on interns. When I found out that Matchstic did in fact offer summer internships, I pretty much stalked Blake on the internet for three months. Just kidding, but I was pretty determined to get in the door because of what a good environment it seemed to be to foster a fledgling designer. I loved how much they care about what they do and how they treat the people they do it with. I also loved the amount of fun and camaraderie they seem to share in the process. Not mention the fact that I'm really interested in the branding field of design and was eager to learn more about it.

The application was a challenge, but it was a ton of fun to execute. I love doing hand-drawn type, and used this as an opportunity to practice at it and have fun. I drew inspiration from the cowboy photograph they provided and went from there. Thankfully they liked my poster and took notice of my determination, so here I am.

I've already learned so much in the past week, I can't imagine where I will be by the end of this. The value of working under these awesome guys in immeasurable. I'm also having a ton of fun doing quality work that I'm proud of. Ok, before I get too saccharine, here are a few pieces of my work, and more can be found on my behance.net porfolio:  http://www.behance.net/KellyCarnes

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