You may recall that right before Christmas I got a job offer to go work at StormFrog, where I did some freelance work in 2010. I promptly (if regretfully) put in my notice at Accuraty, packed my bags and got myself a plane ticket, since they needed another designer as soon as possible. StormFrog set me up with a temporary apartment while I looked for a car and started work on the 9th.

Now after two weeks of work, I have a little car and a signed lease to move in to a privately rented condo in Pittsford at the end of the month. It looks like a great deal, and the landlords are leaving me a certain amount of their daughter’s furniture that they don’t want to bother moving!

Let me just say that I was unbelievably glad to be done with the car shopping and dealing with used car salesmen. Hoping to avoid them for a while. I do like my little car a lot though. I’m learning to commute 20-30 minutes by interstate each way and to drive in snow. Rochester has been alternately rainy and warm, and snowy and very cold, with brief periods of sunshine. Earlier this week we also had literally gale-force winds in the evening, which was a little startling.

Things have been pretty good, if busy and often stressful. At work I’ve been doing some branding materials for Olympic-style sports competitions, and a website redesign for an insurance company. When they’re farther along in the process I’ll see about sharing them here, but I will say that I’m very excited about the new logo I’ve designed for one of the sports competitions!

I took some pictures around the office. The office building is outside the village of Victor, about half an hour outside Rochester proper, which means that it’s a very pretty area, very removed from everything else. Our building doesn’t look like much on the outside but is in a nice spot nestled on the side of the hill the road runs on. I had a pretty walk to the post office at lunchtime earlier in the week and it was pleasant to walk up and down the rolling hills and past the little farm fields around the office.

StormFrog is on the third floor (well, and increasingly the second) up under the roof of our building, with a cozy little break area/lobby that is kept decked out with a wide variety of teas, a fancy single-cup coffee brewer, and a selection of snacks. Oh, and FROGS! ^^

The office has a couple of fishtanks around too (and more leafy potted plants than anybody knows what to do with), but the frog in the break area is my favorite. I like to look for him whenever I get fresh coffee. I saw him fed earlier, and he looked so happy nomming down on live fruit flies. The atmosphere the boss’s wife (and others) have created with the plants, bright paint, and lighting makes you feel almost like you’re working in the rainforest, in a good way.

My desk is around the corner in the “creative ski loft” with the other two designers and the Flash/Interactive developer. It’s a pretty cool room with wood beams, big windows and skylights, and nice people (although that goes for everybody I’ve met at SF so far).

I like the view out the window right behind my computer. I’m hoping to spot some interesting animals out there at some point, but nothing so far, just a good view of the depressing weather when it rolls in.

We figure we need skis to work in the creative loft.

I have a few little reminders on my desk already, some old and some new.