creativity

Play hard, Network harder

I found my internship at a rooftop party hosted by Larry Fitzgerald in Phoenix, Arizona. The route to my internship was very unconventional, but a story worth telling.

4 Reasons to Intern at a Start-up

Start-up companies are extremely unique places to start your career as an intern.

When you wear different hats, you’ll find that one size doesn’t fit all.

On paper, my role at ChatterBlast, a digital marketing services company in Philadelphia, is clear and concise: Research and Reporting intern.

In real life though, my role isn’t so clean cut. While most of my work is typically research-centered (creating data reports, forming influencer lists, analyzing client information, etc.), I’ve also had the opportunity to wear some other hats in the office.

Are You #TempleMade?

Today, May 6th, at 9PM, “Branded”, a film by Cameron S. Mithcell, will be premiering at The Pearl on Broad Street. The film looks inside the Temple Made campaign through the eyes of students, faculty, alumni, and the marketing team that started it all. “Branded” is an opportunity to experience and discuss the impact of the influential campaign and its affect on the Temple community. It is a cherry and white movement that has expanded Temple’s reach not only in the city of Philadelphia and surrounding areas, but also nationwide with its influential ads in print, TV, and online. There will be a Q&A discussion following the premiere. The premiere will screen twice, first at 9PM and second at 9:30PM. You can RSVP to the event for free admission.

Inside View on NSAC

Temple University’s NSAC team did an amazing job finishing up their competition last week placing fourth out of fourteen teams who presented in front of the NY judges! That’s a great accomplishment for all students involved in the process. This week, I sat down with graduating Advertising-Art Direction student, Angela Lanza, to talk to her about NSAC in general and what it’s like to participate in the competition for future Temple students who may be interested in trying it out.

Evian’s “Baby & Me”

Evian strikes gold with another spot focusing on their “Live Young” branding and providing us with yet again a video featuring adorable babies, Evian’s signature. This time, instead of just showing the inner child that Evian’s water brings out in drinkers because of the pure quality, the brand decided to take the story a step further and have the adults actually meet their inner child. The casting for this campaign was spot on in both the commercial and print applications. Above you can see the dancing, youthful, children as they meet and below you can catch a glimpse of how the campaign is shown through print. Overall I think it’s a cheerful attitude that stick’s true to Evian’s previous advertising. And the use of cute adorable babies in ads is always a winner in my books.

Read more on Evian’s “Baby & Me”…

Happy Earth Day, Google!

Happy Earth Day 2013! While you’re all being especially green today, do yourself a favor and head over to Google‘s homepage to see their interactive logo for the day. Google has presented us with a beautiful landscape that goes through the changing of the seasons. As the sun moves westward and the moon goes through it’s phases, the seasons pass, showing us different days starting with spring going slowly into summer, fall, and winter.

Read more on Happy Earth Day, Google!…

crowdSPRING: Quick Money & Portfolio Pieces

As college students we tend to have thin portfolios and light wallets, so we need to look outside of the classroom. Sure, part time work can help, and internships are key to our success, but there are a few small things that we can be benefit from for cash and experience purposes.

George Lois visits the MET every Sunday

You can read the article here: https://www.good.is/posts/why-we-go-to-the-met-every-sunday-and-have-for-60-years

I’m an avid reader of the GOOD blog, whose tagline is: What’s good to learn and do today. I would love to share all their posts with you but you can check it out and if it speaks to you, subscribe to the blog yourself (of course!)

Kembrel Men’s Store Opening

After interning for Kembrel for over a year, I have learned many things about fashion, retail, social media, merchandising and branding. Kembrel’s latest venture was opening a Men’s Shop in the midtown village. With such a small space and an unconventional retail/showroom space. I knew something that needed to be done. So, I suggest to the CEO, Head of Store Operations, Head Buyer Marketing Manager and the Creative Director that we change the space into a men’s only store.

Social Hollywood: The Beauty Inside

I think I can speak for us all that at one point or another we have wondered what it would be like to be the main character of a movie. This is the key insight for “The Beauty Inside” a global social film collaboration by Toshiba and Intel starring Topher Grace and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and potentially, YOU! This campaign was brought to my attention by a fellow Temple Advertising student and good friend Holly Furman who strongly believes in inspiring others to do good advertising. It’s one of the things I like most about being an ad major here are Temple, we are a group of young professionals giving advice, getting advice, and sharing inspiring ideas. When she sent me the link to this social film I needed to investigate the topic a little more and this is the amazing story that I found “The Beauty Inside” campaign had to deliever.

Writing is important, and it’s not so bad after all

At Lorel Marketing Group, in King of Prussia, I have been given several jobs such as posting on social media, writing for blogs, coming up with copy for websites, proofreading projects and assisting in pulling together different information to form a complete project. All of these jobs have a common theme: writing. I thought that after I had completed my GenEds and intro classes that my writing would be PowerPoint presentations and maybe a few small papers. I have written more this summer than I have in the past school year. A lot of people groan when it comes to writing, but I have found that it is both necessary and can be enjoyable.

A lot of my writing has been creative for blogs or social media. This is fun to really spice up your thoughts and come up with funny posts. Other times, some people here will give me a task that involves piecing together previous reports and jobs into a new, fresher piece. This is a nice mind exercise and it feels good to stretch your brain to come up with new phrases or words to fit into a sentence. Some of my work entails word-smithing some documents to make them fit into a 2 page spot. While reading some of the previous writers’ work or projects, I see many typos and grammatical errors that were published. Not only does it pay to have proper grammar in school, but at work especially. I edit this information and put it together into a new doc, which gives it a more up-to-date feel and keeps the content new. It’s always nice to have a fresh set of eyes to view your writing for a different point of view.

I did not see myself as a strong writer, but several people here have told me that I am. I never thought that I enjoyed writing, but if the topic is interesting and you have the desire to do the work it’s not so bad.

The Beginning of the End

Hello all!

As my internship with Sodexo and the Temple Dining Services comes to an end, I realize that I learned so much from this experience and gained many positive skills.

Read more on The Beginning of the End…

“Design is creativity with strategy.”

Students at Temple see thousands of advertisements on campus each day. Some are hung on bulletin boards; others are passed out on Liacouras Walk. But the ads and event posters hanging in the Louis J. Esposito Dining Center and the Valaida S. Walker Food Court in the Student Center—are made by me and the rest of the marketing team at Sodexo!

Visual Power

Just take a look at this print ad…

At first glance, I thought it was a cellphone too, but taking a second glance, its something more than that.

Nissan’s “CellTruck” print ad was created by TBWA Argentina. Brilliant, isn’t it?

Tiny Anchors

Tiny Anchors is a creative inspiration blog started by Brooke Mousitis of Brooke Courtney Photography in my hometown of Lancaster, PA.

“My goal is not to have the best blog out there, for there are tons of similar blogs, or to have a million followers. I just want to be able to look back at the end of every year and see what what projects I was working on and what was inspiring me at the time.” -Brooke

3191 Miles Apart, continued!

Just a little update on the previous 3191 miles apart post!

3191 Quarterly: issue no. 6 is now available for you to hold in your hands!

” [the issue] includes features on cocktails, hanging plants, chocolate cake, London & Stockholm, forging, our homes, chai tea and much more”

Kinfolk Magazine

“Kinfolk is a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. We’ve created Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love” – Kinfolkmag.com

3191 Miles Apart

3191 Miles Apart is a blog started by Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes. Both Photographers, Art Directors, Stylists, and Designers. The two creatives met back in 2005 and in 2007 started their first project of diptych photographs: “A year of mornings”, followed by “A year of evenings”. “A year in mornings: 3191 miles apart” eventually got published, and is now the only place we are able to view the photographs. In 2010, they decided to take their series to a quarterly magazine print format, and post weekly on the blog.

5 Campaigns that Paved the Way

We can all think of the most creative ads we’ve ever seen, the most successful, or even the funniest ones, but after reading James Twitchell’s, 20 Ads that Shook the World, I now know the most impactful ads ever created. These campaigns paved the way for current art, copy, and research directors. They paved the way, in a sense that their contribution to the ad changed the way people view advertising and products in general.

Utilizing Ad Databases

I Stumble(d)Upon a great article the other day titled: 17 Outstanding Sources for Advertising Inspiration. The article was featured on a great design based website called Designm.ag

Some of the entries I’m sure you’ve heard of (Ads of the World, Ad Forum) but others are hidden gems (Coloribus has over 2 million ads in it’s database).

Arcano Type Project Finally Released

After 4 months of work, Arcano Type has finally been released. Totally designed by hand, letter by letter, using Chinese ink on Japanese calligraphy paper.

Pretty neat and clean, but super deco-style. I’m not quite sure it’s use yet beyond deco, which hardly has a use as it is besides decoration of all sorts. It’s a beautiful typeface searching for a place in the world.

Disastro Ecologico

Here’s a throwback design related post. It’s modern with old techniques. It’s been done but it’s fresh.

Alberto Seveso is his name, and guess what? He is Italian if you haven’t gotten that from his name or the title already.

The War Of Art

A vital gem . . . a kick in the ass.
(Esquire)

Anyone who has encountered this book seems to be affected by it deeply. Check the reviews on Amazon, they’re frighteningly positive. How about that title, too? Classic switcheroo.

Unmotivated? I’ve got the site for you…

It goes by many names: writer’s block, apathy, brain freeze, brain fart, uncreative, unimaginative, and most of all unmotivated. We’ve all been there.

In our line of work it’s important to be able to flick on the creativity switch at any given time. I recently came across a quick single-serving website that may be just what you need. It’s aptly titled:

Machinery Philly!

Yesterday we had speaker come in for Creative Thinking (an ad course). Mr. Ken Cills of Machinery Philly gave a presentation on “how to be creative” and what has worked for him. I wasn’t able to find a site for his agency, but he showed us some of his work on youtube. He echoed some things we’ve already learned from that particular course. He placed a premium on being able to think like a child and being “stupid.”

Writer's Block on that Ad? Try These Exercises!

September has vanished. A new month is here, and your acclimation process is almost complete. The syllabus, the introductions, gathering of supplies, and lectures have eased you in gradually. The transition from carefree summer days to solitary homework captivity starts now. Your prison sentence runs until the middle of December. Take heart knowing that your friends and family are waiting for you on the outside. They care for you very much.