It’s All Fun And Games

Mo Easterby graduated from MSU with a BFA in graphic design, but she started her college journey in Oahu.  She had moved there from a small town in Northern California called Pacifica.  Pacifica is full of memories for Mo: almost every weekend was spent at the grandparents’, swimming, playing baseball, driving go-karts, riding tractors, eating Otter Pops.  Sounds pretty awesome.

Understandably, such good memories are hard to leave, and Mo was nervous at first because it was her first time away from home and Hawaii was literally an ocean away.  But she found a place that she says will always be in her heart: “I have so much respect for the land, culture, and family I built out there.”  That first big step away from home (also one of her proudest moments in life) gave her the confidence to move to Bozeman six years ago.  She had learned a lot from her time in Oahu and felt it was the next logical step (something that was the opposite of Hawaii, which Montana certainly is!).  She eventually became a member of our team here at TWA in pretty typical TWA fashion.  Elysia was installing some menu graphics at a sandwich shop in town that Mo was working at and the two struck up a conversation.  Turns out that Mo was graduating in Graphic Design, which Elysia loved hearing, and encouraged her to stop by the shop sometime.  She dropped off her resume and while there wasn’t a role for her at that time, we loved her resume, and a few weeks later when a good fit appeared, we reached out.

While she is in charge of accounts Mo prides herself on being a jack of all trades and has been known to help in production and installation at times in addition to throwing down her design skills with Elysia.  She loves learning and discovering new things, and that fits in well with what we do here, especially with questions she’s fielded, like, “Can vinyl be frozen under ice in a hockey rink?” (Yes) or “Can I wrap my rifle in a Gucci print?” (No, because it would be copyright infringement, and more importantly we use heat during installation and such an application not great for the barrel).

Animals = Love

When she was growing up, Mo imagined herself as a zookeeper.  Like our graphic designer Emily, she had a big love of animals and her take was that since she couldn’t have a pet tiger, the closest she could come would be by being a zookeeper (pretty good reasoning for a kid!).  She also uses animals to talk about a superpower she would prefer (shape shifting).  “With shape-shifting you could have speed like a cheetah, strength like a gorilla, invisibility like an ant, flight like a bird, height like a giraffe.”  It wasn’t until she was in college that she realized that graphic design would allow her to pursue art and make a living, something a lot of people would dream of doing.  We’re glad to be part of this part of her journey in that way.

Movie Time

Mo also gave an unusual answer when we asked for a favorite movie: The Sandlot (“You’re killing me, Smalls!”).  But there’s a good reason.  She often went camping with family friends in Oregon growing up and she was the only girl among twenty or so boys, but she managed to be the fastest runner.  Every morning they would hop on their bikes and get to a field and play baseball every day.

We definitely feel like we’re her new family here at TWA and got to witness another skill of hers at a recent company trip which featured a talent show: Mo has Irish dance skills!  Ask her to show you the next time you’re in the office.