While out and about shopping for Valentine’s cards I was happy to see my lettering applied to a couple new cards this year! I can’t wait to send this sister card to one of my sisters, and I also love working on mono-weight scripts — this “hello” lettering was no exception. I hope you are making plans to celebrate with those you love!
AIGA KC Design Week: Juan Carlos Pagan
Tonight I was able to attend Juan Carlos Pagan's talk in KC for design week! I haven't been to an AIGA event in awhile and it was wonderful to get to spend an evening hearing about his work. JC is an art director, typographer, and designer who loves to manipulate letterforms to tell stories. His talk focused on doing things the hard way, and his passion for creating definitely comes through in his work. Thanks AIGA KC, and my friend Lila, for bringing another great speaker to KC!
Here are a few of my favorite projects Juan Carlos shared during his talk:
Design Army Invades KC
Tonight I had the opportunity to hear one of the founders of Design Army, Jake Lefebure, speak. While there were many witty and inspiring take-aways from the evening, it was perhaps most interesting to learn about the process in which their studio operates. Their heavy focus on sketching appears to drive the beginning stages of every project. We even got to see glimpses of how Design Army presents concepts to clients. While Jake chronicled many different projects they had worked on for various clients, I loved hearing about their work for Neenah Paper. I was even lucky enough to snag a few goodies from Neenah's table at the event. This included the set of cards they designed as part of the Delightful Species series. Below are several photos from Design Army's Facebook page giving a behind-the-scenes look at how they gathered inspiration for Neenah's new Environment Premium Recycled Papers line. Thanks Art+Copy Club for bringing in such an inspiring speaker!
"An idea is just an idea unless you execute it."
AAF-KC Career Day
The Future of Advertising
Today I attended the AAF-KC Career Day at the KU Edwards Campus. My morning began with several short talks and I am very glad I made the choice to attend "The Future of Advertising." A panel featuring employees from Bernstein-Rein, Propaganda 3, and VML each shared their thoughts about where advertising is going. All made many interesting points, yet several stood out to me. First, while I was familiar with Chipolte's recent campaign "The Scarecrow," I had not seen the Funny or Die response to the video. One point made during this talk was that advertising has now become a business that is in the hands of the consumer. The pubic has many options if they desire to respond to a campaign. Advertising today no longer only involves an interaction between a brand, ideas, and channels. Now, technology and data have entered the mix. People want to interact with brands, so it is now relevant to be familiar with both technology and data. Another point stated was the necessity of giving the customer the wheel. The Stanley Piano was used to illustrate that while technology made the idea possible, the customer involvement really became the key to its' success. Finally, I have several new books to dive into including Marketing to Women by Marti Barletta and Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. These are only a few of the insights I took away from a day filled with talks, portfolio reviews, and networking, but are ones I felt left the biggest impact as I headed home.
Summer Internship Recap
This past summer I worked full-time as the Design Intern for Trozzolo Communications Group. Because I wasn't blogging during this time I wanted to do a short recap about my experience. Throughout the summer I was able to work on actual client projects, as well as a specific intern project in collaboration with the Writing Intern Scott, and the Account Services Intern Anna. We were assigned to create a Philanthropic Vision for Trozzolo's client mobank, shown here. Another project I worked on throughout the summer was designing a poster and tshirt for Trozzolo's annual Lake Day.
Anna, Scott and I spent a great deal of time together throughout the summer while working on our intern project, as well as other assignments including painting the "Hello, Growth" boxes for Trozzolo's window display. We also spent our lunch hours exploring downtown KC. The most worthwhile experience during my internship was the actual interaction we had with clients, especially when presenting to mobank. Having worked in an agency setting, the real-world experience I gained has already impacted my view of what working life will be like after graduation and I know I was able to gain valuable skills that continue to encourage my work ethic.
