Project Firefly is a concept that is easy to embrace. Selections will be made based solely on the merit of the intellectual contribution in blind judging by a panel of academic leaders from around the world. While corporate social responsibility is a timely topic, in many ways Project Firefly serves a more pressing business need. As business focus increasingly shifts beyond established western markets companies are challenged to build local teams. This in turn demands new recruitment channels beyond the well established universities. Ambitious students are given the opportunity to prove themselves and gain exposure to companies with whom they would perhaps struggle to be visible.

Over time Project Firefly will expand into a wider publishing platform for academics. Corporate sponsors will continue to host competitions on specific subjects, but open entries on any topic will also be welcome. In this way the platform will become a much needed new vehicle for fresh thought from all corners of the world.

One of our special skills is the ability to take big ideas and bring them to life, fast and at a high level. The ICON team developed the Project Firefly brand, designed and produced the launch site in under six weeks (over xmas) including name, logo, website, and the full social media program including: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Daniel Sabio gets credit for for nailing the name in the first round. The design team was led by Kate Ricci and Daniel Hernandez with Valerie Armstrong and Bianca Pettinicchi. Daniel Sabio and Ryan Davis led the development effort.

I’ve met some awesome people, being here has broken me of my stubbornness (which is weakness in disguise) when it comes to corporate design. Ask me how far the Sigma Aldrich logo should be from the right, bottom edge? 10 mm. Ask me how long the logo should be? 47mm. What should the body text font size be? 9 over 11. Piece-a-cake. Smooth as butta. Sigma, you owe me a job.

I know things work out for the better. Things happen for a reason. It’s up to us to make our decisions. Even though Switzerland wasn’t where I pictured myself being, I took that spontaneous leap and I finally got a piece of the pie!

Read more

Read more at: Valerie’s tumblr

The trip home was an added adventure with 30 min late trains…missed connections…and as always a shaky language barrier. But all in all, we had a great time.

As I head back to the states in search of a job (check out my website… www.dlhernandez.com ), I will miss the beautiful landscapes, random mystery cheeses, and of course the great people I met here.

If y’all are ever down in Texas, come visit me and i’ll hook you up with a gun rack and we could even wrangle us up some cattle.

See ya on the other side and don’t forget to smile.

DH

Note* That is my shadow in the bottom left corner…

Note** I don’t have a gun rack

Note*** I have never wrangled up any cattle

Note**** I have milked farm animals.

My latest web design to go live is the Project Firefly essay competition website. Lots of work went into it and I think it looks great. The site provides a platform to foster thought leadership among university students and recent graduates by answering one of four questions on various financial topics.

Check it out for yourself www.project-firefly.com

Props to the programmers behind the scenes and everyone involved.

*Note
…image unaltered and taken through a glass pane in the toy museum…

**Note

…4 people can fit in a Swisscom phone booth…even if the first one is missing some glass…

On Sunday, my roommates Kat & Bianca and I took the train to Wassarauen to hike up Ebenalp, the Northernmost peak of the Appenzell Alps. The ascent proved difficult without snowshoes and hiking poles, but we put in a solid effort and made it halfway up before saying fuckit, hiking down, and taking the cable car all the way back up. The view was glorious but the air was so cold it hurt, so we sought refuge in a resto at the summit. We soaked in the grandeur sheltered from the wind, sipping hot chocolate, and scarfing down Appenzell mac & cheese (Kraft would die of embarrassment here). Seeing things from high up is sobering – the panoramic view of the Alps, down to the rolling hills of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany bordering Lake Constance got me thinking about the scale of things and how I truly fit amid it all.

Read more

Next stop was Florence which included the bistecca fiorentina and of course gelato. Bistecca florentina…for those unfamiliar…is a steak that is slightly charred on the outside and rare on the inside…it..was..amazing! I’m from Texas and we know a thing or two about meat, and this meat was super good from a Texan’s perspective.

Finally the last stop was Venice, which concluded with a new years celebration in San Marcos square. It was a huge celebration with thousands of people packing the square, that continued well into the early morning hours.

After all the partying and with a backpack filled with various cheeses and goodies, we took the 620 am train out of Venice…and headed back to Gais.

Back at Icon-Worldwide…The Simagination Challenge, a website I designed for the University of St.Gallen’s Master of Arts in Strategy and International Management program (SIM), is starting to build up steam. It was a great project to work on because the program leaves a positive and sustainable social impact in our society. I’ve noticed several companies/entities headed in this direction and with the current rise in consumer activism and mobility, I believe companies will try and follow in the footsteps of great programs like that of the SIM program.

Check out the website, i think it looks great! (good job programming it Sabio)

simaginationchallenge.com

Visit my website too.

www.dlhernandez.com

Over the course of Switzerland’s largest recruiting event participants will be able to access the latest information about events, sponsors, and recruiting company’s. The app serves as an essential added dynamic to this annual event allowing students to actively respond in real-time, as well as staying up to the minute on the latest updates from the conference team.

It was friday, the end of my first work week.

Me and Daniel were trying to make the next train, rushing to turn out the lights, shut down the computers, eject harddrives, all that mess.

We had five minutes.

We hustled down the stairs where Lori stopped us for a few seconds to wish us an awesome weekend and suggest going to Ebenalp for some natural beauties.

Time was ticking.

There was only one option: take the new shortcut Jon had showed us earlier that day while walking Lucy and Napoleon.

It was dark.

Somewhat stumbling, I used my android phone’s backlight to see where my feet would land, swinging it around my body so Daniel could possibly see his behind me. I wasn’t sure if it was fully working, but neither of us completely fell, and my phone cut off when we hit the light.

We saw a train converging on the stop above us.

It was going in the opposite direction towards St. Gallen, but it was a signal that our train was coming at any second.

I started running. admittedly not the fastest I could run, but I had on a backpack and it was cold. As I emerged over the crest of the hill, our train was rounding the corner…it was up to me to cross the road and reach the button before it.

Here we go.

Fuck, a car blindsides me and decides to zoom by right at that clutch moment, forcing me to turn back.

Blinded by the headlight and whirring honk, I looked again to see if I could make it, but I didn’t really wanna be trackkill…or whatever they call it.

Daniel had just reached the top of the hill, as the train was passing, and mentioned maybe someone else pushed the button. (note:This is one of the smaller stops on the trainline where you have to push the button in order for the train to stop, or else it will just pass by.)

Nope. No one there to push the button, we concluded as it zoomed by.

As Daniel suggested, we would walk to Bühler, the next stop over, probably about a fifteen minute walk, to kill some time before the next train.

As we were walking there was a pop-up sign on the sidewalk that said “live musik”, and had a flashing light. it was at the front of a driveway leading to what appeared to be a woodchopping warehouse. I’m no warehouse expert, though.

I can’t lie, I was extremely asthmatic at this point in time, obviously underestimating how much running in the cold and high altitude could do to my little tim lungs.

Chest tightened, still breathing heavily, as we walked past it, I asked if Daniel had seen this sign before.
He said never, and when we were about fifteen steps beyond it, pausing to look up at the amazing palette of holes of light poked in the sky (yes, the stars) i said “sooooooo…do you wanna check it out?” He said alright, and we skeptically made our way down the little driveway, the smell of fresh wood arising around us.

We were at the bottom of the driveway, and all was dark. All except a little vine of christmas lights around what looked like an open doorway.

We crept toward it, where it lead us to a steep flight of stairs. About halfway down I heard the faint vibrations of electric guitar, but was still not entirely sure where we were going, or what it would be like. Almost at the bottom, a man was coming up the flight and greeted us in German, we responded saying “music?” and he pointed over behind him.

Safely at the bottom, floodlight flicking on, it appeared as though we were at someone’s house, but in the corner, behind a fenced door was a painted wall that read Blues Bar.

I smiled to myself.

It lead to one last steep flight of stairs, and a quick right into what I know now as the Buehler Blues Bar. It was a small kind of place, set up like an old-style cafe with tables and stools along the sides and a semi-circular stage at the end. The difference here, and part of its home-y aesthetic was that it was styled as a cave, with lanterns hanging along the walls above the tables.

The band, The Guitar Shop, was soundchecking as we came in. Aside from one or two others, we were the only ones there, and we grabbed a seat in the back, and took a peek at the menu. In usual Swiss style, the beer was a little pricey, but, being part of the adventure, at least one felt mandatory. The waitress quickly figured out we only spoke English, and surprisingly (for this area) knew it herself, and showed us some new options on the menu, which we ended up going with (a dark dunkel-style for those who are interested). A few minutes later, as the band started their run-through of a couple tunes, the waitress introduced us to her father and mother, apparently the owners of the bar.

Everyone was so welcoming, it felt great.

The band sounded great as well, a four piece playing classic American blues tunes, with a female vocalist with that soulful blues growl that’s ideal, and just good energy all around. They were fully enjoying their soundcheck, and as the waitress asked us where we were from and I said Georgia, the lead singer teased a little bit of “Georgia On My Mind” into the mic and winked at me. Too cool.
 About forty minutes later, as the room packed in with people, the real show started, which I have most of recorded, and I’ve included a few choice cuts below for your listening pleasure (in lo-fidelity).

Somewhere between the beginning of the second set, and the end of our “invited” beer, we decided it was time to go, but not without being pleasantly wished a good night and invited back in a couple weeks by all the staff.

As it turns out, the live blues only happens once every three weeks, so it could be said, in those times of rash decisions and/or when you feel that little tingling urging you back, DO IT, and you won’t regret it.

Oh, yeah, and sorry for cussing at you car, you secretly made my night.

Linkage through here to a long excerpt of audio [the second song is a Johnny Cash cover]: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s42/sh/4242806a-eb1d-4163-a7c4-66fe11ba5a09/18de0a57642e2886604a17cfdbdb3027

The past few weekends I’ve seen some awesome places in Europe! Paris, & another beautiful city in Switzerland, also the Capital: Bern. Two great places that I highly suggest seeing! Both such quaint cities, filled with good vibes, great sights, & awesome scenery!

You can read the full post on Kayla’s Blog: Kayla’s Blog