Meet Elysia!

Magical Thinking

Believe it or not, Elysia wanted to be a horse when she grew up.  She was in kindergarten at the time and just figured that at some point in the future you could transform yourself into whatever you wanted to be.  While that shows you what a supportive home Elysia grew up in, and while she did also occasionally eat grass at that age, her mom gently told her that that being a horse wasn’t in her future and that eating grass wasn’t a good idea, but especially not when it’s been treated with manure.

We can tease her about this story but at the heart of it is the sort of magical thinking that you need in our Creative Director.  She oversees all our projects in various stages to make sure that we’re delivering our best creative work in the most practical way.  She started on the design path originally in her hometown of Missoula.  She was a Fine Arts major with an emphasis on drawing.  But she didn’t feel like she was getting what she needed out of the program so she left her family to go to MSU in Bozeman.  It was the first time she’d ever really been away from her twin sister and those first two semesters were tough enough to make her feel like she should go back.  She ended up sticking it out and loved the experience, even though she didn’t love being away from her friends and family during that time.

Music

When she’s designing she likes to listen to music, including Taylor Swift songs, which she professes to know all the lyrics to.  When we asked her why she said it’s probably because she’s upset with boys as often as Taylor seems to be.  We totally get it.  When she’s really stuck for inspiration, Blink-182 is her go-to.

Speaking of music, another magical thinking moment happened on a family road trip back in 2000.  Elysia had just gotten a portable CD player and thought that having the headphones on didn’t just mean that no one could hear what you were listening to, but that no one could hear if you sang.  She made it through the entire album but it was when “Larger than Life” came back on that her father gently enlightened her to the limits of the technology.

As a side note for parents out there, one of the tools in the Crockett Parenting Handbook is offering prizes to your children on a road trip, including not asking “are we there yet” until Dad says you’re there.  Believe it or not, Elysia and Anna made it through Idaho, Arizona, and California (and back to Montana) without asking once!  

Time Travel

When we asked her when she would want to travel back to, she said Prohibition and WW2.  Prohibition because, “I’d prefer to have to break the law to drink my liquor.”  Fair enough.  The WW2 reason was really interesting, though.  Elysia’s maternal grandma actually served in Germany as a hospital nurse, but since she never spoke about it until the year before she passed away, she never knew, and as a result she’s gotten more curious about that time period since then.

But even if she could go back to the 20s or 40s, we really wouldn’t want her to, because we’ve loved having her with us since 2014 and hope she stays with us for many years to come!

Elyisa and her ultimate frisbee team Moondog! (Can you spot her?) If she ain’t working, she playing frisbee!