On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Think Tank, an event that the Nashville Chapter of AIGA puts on each year. I attended this event last year which definitely wet my appetite for becoming more involved with the local chapter. Think Tank is a day long event which attempts to answer the question, “What’s next in communication arts?” The process is through series of speakers as well as a round table discussion.
If you haven’t seen them play yet, then you need to come to this. If you have, then you know why you need to come to this. I will see you there.
Last Friday, I went out to lunch with a few friends and learned about a new (well, being that I am a little late on this trend, newer) coffee shop in town. Being as though coffee plays a major role in my daily diet, I was more than intrigued. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work and was not able to join them on Friday afternoon when they went. Later that evening, I was on the bus with one of my clients, Relient K, and overheard both Travis and Derek, members of the crew, raving about the same place. We returned from the show in Greenville on Sunday morning and I had to check out this place on the way to lunch. Unfortunately, they were closed and a visit to this coffee shop alluded me once again.
When I first began LaCroix Design Company and LaCroix Merchandising, I had big ideas about what working for myself would be like. One of those included me taking my laptop to various locations to spend time working on projects there. However, over the past couple of years, those out of office excursions have dwindled. I now find leaving the office to be a bit of an inconvenience. My workload has increase quite a bit over the last two and half years and in that time, I have made it a priority to to equip my workspace to be everything that I would need. Not only do I have all my supplies and reference materials here but I have also created it to be an aesthetically pleasing place to work. Additionally, to fuel my constant coffee craving, I subscribe to Intelligentsia’s Roaster’s Choice plan which provides me with three pounds of great coffee every month. On top of that, I have a wonderful girlfriend who works at Starbucks and regularly brings me tasty beverages home.
With all the talk of this new coffee shop’s grandeur on my mind, I decided to get out of the office and take a little field trip today. I have been a little cooped up in here with a heavy workload and am working on a project which required a number of hand drawn typefaces and illustrations. Therefore, I packed up my sketchbook, ipod and some drawing tools and headed over to Crema Coffee. Upon Derek’s advice, I ordered myself a double Cuban Coffee and grabbed a seat at the bar facing the window. The drink was phenomenal and I do not recall ever having a coffee drink taste so good. Additionally, the place had a great vibe to it. I spent about and hour or so there working on some rough sketches and it was a great place to get away for a bit. I eventually had to head out for fear that I would be there reordering Cuban Coffees all day.
I am now highly recommending Crema to anyone who will listen. It will definitely be a more excursion in my work day. In fact, there is a good chance that I will be back in there before the week is over. If you are here in Nashville, definitely go check it out and let me know what you think.
Hours: 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM Mon – Fri &
7:30 AM to 3:00 PM on Saturdays
Address: 15 Hermitage Avenue,
Nashville, TN 37210