By Elizabeth Nunnally University of Nebraska-Lincoln After more othan four years working for Bon Appetit in New York City, Elizabeth Jaime, 28, is striking out on her own to be a freelance photo editor and art director, with hopes of moving back to her hometown of Miami to start her own café. For many it would be daunting to leave a stable job, but Jaime said, “I felt like I’d done all the growing I can here at (Bon Appetit). I want to expand my skill set and also take on new challenges.” There are many unknowns surrounding the café, which Jaime has named Calma. There is no physical building, and Jaime is still in the early stages of figuring things out, but the concept continues to grow. If it works out, Jaime will stop freelancing and devote all of her time to the cafe. That doesn't mean that Jaime will stop doing what she loves. The idea behind Calma is that she will be able to do photography, marketing, interior design and many other things that she enjoys while running the cafe. "It would be a little bit of everything I love to do all in one place," Jaime said. Jaime’s goal for Calma is to serve healthy and stylish food that tastes good. "In New York there are a lot of... really stylish cafes... It's all about good vibes and good food," Jaime said. In high school Jaime took photography classes and was the photo editor for the school yearbook. She graduated with a degree in art history and practiced photography as a hobby. “I always loved photography, and I loved the behind the scenes of the photography world,” Jaime said. After interning at Teen Vogue in the photo department in college, Jaime decided that she wanted to work in the photo department at a magazine. So, she began sending out her resume asking potential employers to contact her if anything came up. Eventually, she landed a job as senior visuals editor at Bon Appetit. There she managed the photo department and conceptualized photo shoots for the magazine and the website. Jaime has many tasks as a photo editor, but her favorite is visualizing shoots and then seeing them come together. “It’s challenging a lot of the time to be on the shoot and try to stick to the vision, but when the product is done and when the photos are done and you see that you have this image that you have created, it feels really good,” Jaime said. She hopes that Calma will combine all the things that she enjoys into one creative project. All of the skills she learned at Bon Appetit have prepared her to work on branding Calma and applying the look and feel of the restaurant to many different forms of media. “So, in my mind Calma is a little bit of everything I like to do. I love to make images for Instagram or for marketing,” Jaime said. Jaime has also seen what it takes to build a business. Before working at Bon Appetit, she worked for a wedding dress company. At the time, the company only had one location in New York. Jaime was the assistant to the owner and did a wide range of tasks. She helped with the website, took photos of their products and helped with their blog and other social media channels. Now the company has multiple locations across the country. Jaime has had a variety of responsibilities at her various jobs. She has maintained websites, produced content at her own photo shoots and also managed others within her department to ensure that deadlines were met. All of these things have helped prepare her to work freelance and start a new project of opening Calma. Jaime realizes that the process of opening Calma may take time and present many challenges. Calma may have a long way to go in becoming a reality but Jaime is taking the steps to get there and has spent years gaining experience and skills necessary to achieve her goals.
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A note about the content: This site showcases the final projects of University of Nebraska-Lincoln editing students. Each semester, students pick a journalist or communications professional to profile. This is their work.
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