Skip to main content

JULIA BALFOUR

I was introduced to Julia Balfour in 2010, by our mutual friend Carol Adams. We were all doing start-ups, trying to build a business from zero. I was sharing desk space with my accountant in Old Lyme, Julia was doing the same in Old Saybrook, the birthplace of JULIA BALFOUR, LLC and Carol was grinding coffee beans when not tending the goats in Lyme. 


I met Julia for the first time that summer, explaining that I needed a graphic arts package, company name, logo, tagline, website, communications program, stationery, and business cards. And, of course, I needed it yesterday at a price I could afford, if not pro-bono. 


Julia didn’t flinch, she went to work. She would email me at midnight with a “new idea” and we’d text back and forth tweaking the “look and feel” of my new company, Alpaca United. 


She designed a trade-show exhibit and followed through on the myriad details required to secure space in an international show, ITMA, Barcelona, Spain, 2011.


Julia was not only a brilliant graphic artist, RISD and Parsons, she was the full package, businesswoman, wife, mother, and friend. This girl was an iron fist in a velvet glove, strong inside, charming, and engaging on the outside. 


We’ll miss you, my dear friend, rest in peace, you’ve earned it.











 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RIPTIDE

 "It can sweep the strongest swimmer out to sea" Twenty four hours and the countdown begins to better times: Better health Better economy Better culture More civility More truth More empathy The tide has turned and the detritus of four years is caught in a blue rip that can't be stopped. This election started over a year ago, day after day of accusations, exaggerations, and conspiracy theories.  The electorate is just plain exhausted and needs a coffee break, if not a martini break, shaken not stirred. Winter COVID is here, lurking in places it hadn't gone before, making us sick, hospitalizing us, killing us in numbers we hadn't thought possible. The first order of business during the first hundred days is to get COVID under control so that we can return to work without fear of contamination and resume some degree of normalcy in our daily life. Your health and the health of your fellow Americans is the fundamental requirement of a strong economy and a normal life....

IT MUST BE SUNDAY

" Life is like a river, if you cannot let go of the past, it will drag you down the stream.” ―Amit Ray I've Been Thinking... A few months ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about life when he said to me: “Maria, if you want something new, you are going to have to first get rid of the old. It’s the only way to make room.” Damn, I thought. Ain’t that the truth? One of my big New Year’s resolutions for 2020 was to clear out the old in every area of my life. I had made a promise to myself that this would be the year I would take a hard look at how I was living my life: my beliefs, my attachments, and all my stuff. I started sorting through things from my office, things from my time as First Lady of California, things from my parents, things from my kids (do yourself a favor and do not save all of your kids’ school things like I did), and so many other things that had found their way into storage when life got the best of me. In fact, I was already in the thick of shredding, di...

CHAOS REVISITED

  " a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order." Isn't four years of this enough, seriously? The constant media drumbeat, TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP, dominating the headlines, the news shows, and our conversation. This did not happen by accident, this was a calculated strategy by a certified narcissist. "Narcissism:  a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others." The Trump supporters say that "this is just Trump being Trump" that, my friends, is precisely the problem. Now that he's lost the election and his sycophants in Congress have replaced their horns with silence, if not acceptance, wouldn't you think the man would suck it up, acknowledge the inevitable, exhibit a modicum of humility and devise an exit strategy that would highlight his accomplishments not feed his  addi...