Our friend, Grace, stopped by for a brief visit yesterday. We are like proud parents (professionally speaking) when we think of Grace.

The day we first met her, she was coming to show her portfolio in order to get an internship. That would have been ... like ... well, several years ago. We were impressed with both her work and with her, even at the time. She is not a large person, but she has a certain presence about her. She is not a loud person, but she makes you want to hear what she has to say.

Of course, she got the internship. And then, a year or so later, we hired her away from a hip competitor (quite a coup, if you ask me). And she spend about a year with us, helping us with some very nice branding work. You can see her hand in the case study for Central Pacific Bank, for example.

But alas, as Grace told us, "Asian girls eventually go home." Grace went home, to eat her way through Asia and re-establish her Singaporean roots. Now, she is a principle of a very cool design studio called Elixr. We love her work, but we are not surprised. After all, we recognized her talent early...and we helped raise her (well, not really...she is one of those people who is born an adult).

Anyhow, yesterday she was in town for her little brother's graduation (and passing through from a conference in New York). We got to spend way too little time with her. So we'll look forward to seeing her again soon (maybe two or three years).