Watch This!

“Renowned graphic designer Michael Bierut claims that he’s not creative. Instead, he likens his job to that of a doctor who tends to patients – “the sicker, the better.” Digging into the 86 notebooks he’s kept over the course of his career, Bierut walks us through 5 projects – from original conception to final execution – extracting a handful of simple lessons (e.g. the problem contains the solution; don’t avoid the obvious) at the foundation of brilliant design solutions.” – http://the99percent.com

If you dont know what I’m talking about yet, I really recommend that you go out and grab this 100 page easy read. It’s written by President of the Rhode Island School of Design John Maeda and it explains how simplicity plays such a key role in technology + design and even life itself!

http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

Maeda’s Blog
http://www.maedastudio.com

Watch his Ted Talks: The Simple Life:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_maeda_on_the_simple_life.html

Hey Bsluggers! A ton of you have requested to get the Bslugs shirt this season. I think I may have missed some of you so for those who want one.. let me know! I’ll put you in the order.

Oldspice
residue is evil

Has the time really passed by that quickly? So many things have happened since September 19th of 2008. I get to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, collaborate with some of the most amazing creative minds, and took part in the first ever 3-D stop-motion animated film, Coraline. All of these opportunities are presented to me at one of the largest independently-owned advertising agencies in the world, Wieden + Kennedy. The learning curve I’m experiencing right now is phenomenal. There is always something new to explore and I am constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone to create amazing work. I have finally gotten a good feel for this place. Sometimes it’ll be really nice and relaxing and sometimes I’ll be working from 7 in the morning til 2 in the morning. This is totally the kind of environment that keeps me going. When things are being pushed and deadlines are short, I’m focused and running off adrenaline to keep the juices flowing and crank out the project without even seeing any daylight.

For those of you who are interested, I will begin posting new things that I learn and experience here to share with you on a regular basis. I know when I was in school, I wanted to read up on other creatives experiences and learn from it — so I hope I can provide that for you here.

* * *

On the flipside, these are some of the campaigns that I have taken part in during my time here so far:

Old Spice
www.oldspice.com
(Wireframes + Design)

Career Builder – Anonymous Tip Giver
www.anonymoustipgiver.com
(Wireframes + Design)

Coraline: Bobinsky vs. Bobinsky
(Design – Standard Banners + Rich Banners)

Coraline: Bobinsky Stuck in Banner
(Design – Standard Banners + Rich Banners)

Kobe 4 Banners
(Design – Standard Banners + Rich Banners)

Check out this guy. He’s amazing— he proved that a beautifully designed newspaper will boost sales and image an immense amount and saved this newspaper from folding. Watch him.

Learn more about Jacek Utko

Today was one of the most memorable days of my life. I have accomplished my three years at The Art Institute of Portland for a Bachelors in Graphic Design and am more than ready for what is in store for me in the future. I cannot express how happy and sincerely lucky I felt to have gotten so much support today at the show. So many friends, family, colleagues and people I haven’t seen in a long time came to visit and it was so nice to see those familiar faces. I absolutely am so grateful for having such amazing people in my life. Couldn’t have gone this far without them, that’s for sure!

Aside from that, my schedule today was quite hectic.. not including what had happened the night before… this is how it went:

6AM - Dashed back home from M.Suplido’s place

6:05AM - Cleaned up apt a bit since fam was coming in town, showered, prepped and packed everything that was needed for the big show

8:45AM - Out the door and off to AIPD.

9AM: At school unpacking and setting up my little corner.

Here is the floor setup:

This is what my actual station looked like:

11:30AM: Professionals begin to trickle in.

12:30ish: Def busy chit chatting with tons of people. Probably peak time is around here… It lasted up to about 1:50PM

1:50PM – 3PM: probably the last hour or so was the longest hour of the day. Feet started hurting, hunger started to really tap in…

3:15PM: Packed up and loaded back into n3mo{my car}

IN BETWEEN: LISTENED TO A SHOCKING/UNBELIEVABLE PHONE MESSAGE… {Heart racing, excitement boost, adrenaline to the max, “all i wanna do is celebrate” feeling running through my head}

3:40PM: Arrive at Tiffany Center on 14th and Morrison for graduation ceremony. yes still stoked.

4PM: Began my walk… As a graduate.. again.. Stoked

4:15ish: Brian B. gives me a heads up that my tassel thingy was on the wrong side.. {Oops! I was just ready to be done }

4:40ish: Laura Feraco gives her speech!!!!! YAY!!!!! She did a fantastic job! I’m so proud of her!!!! She conquered one of her biggest fears and what better time than this to do that right? I’m so sad that she’s leaving for Alaska. She’ll do great over there. I just know it! Hi Laura!

5:10ish.. Grad over. Tons of pictures with fam bam

Later on was.. Dinner with fam at Macaroni Grill and then took them shopping for a bit. Mom, pops, sister, inlaws, nephew went back to OLY and Bro+Wife+Son+Daughter is here tonight so we can go shopping tomorrow! I guess in about 8 hours.

Overall, it was a fantastic day and I want to thank everyone who made it out and made my graduation 10 times better and for your support. I really couldn’t have done it without you!

End. CVo

Voism #1: “Who needs a tool
set when you can use a
can opener as a hammer.“
~C. Brubaker

Some more photos of the day:

I’m in almost at the end of my second week at school. I’m counting down to the days of graduation. And I have to start looking for a real job. Like in the art industry. I’ve started my connections, sending thank you letters, emails, job searching, apartment searching in san fran, etc. My life is starting to take shape, and it’s almost time to enter the real world and I still am not sure what I’m doing. 

And break ups… jeez they are so hard. 

Love life now, not tomorrow.

So it’s already a couple weeks since the Portland Advertising Federation’s Colaboratory program finished out. Hm. The time slips by.

I’m struck after the whole thing by how much it influenced in six short (or long?) weeks my whole outlook on my career. In many ways I took away more from Colaboratory than I did in a full two terms of college. This isn’t to denigrate OSU, but rather compliment Colaboratory for being perhaps more than it set out to be. If Colaboratory is a reflection of the Portland it wanted to portray, it succeeded. It wanted to show Portland as a place where people take the box they’re thinking in and invert it, turn it 180, cut the tape and then refold the box into a cardboard airplane. They’re friendlier. They are both serious and able to have fun. They really like food. Celebrate Portland delis, great Mexican, pizza and beer. Oh yeah. Forget COFFEE (that comes with the Northwest package). I did learn that agencies are definitely not made from the same cookie cutter. My final experience with Asterix proved that. Designer Ilona Wall with her great long distance relationship with the San Franciscan staff of Asterix put a real spin on my concept of what an agency can be and how it functions. I cannot lie, I had a great time at Asterix: I love close-knit agencies, which is what Asterix felt like despite it all.

My desk next to Ilona's

The last day of Colaboratory really sticks with me. My team, Kiwi Agency, managed to get a little sleep the night before presentation to Sameunderneath. We had spent every evening with each other for seven days (except the previous Sunday, where we worked independently). The whole thing had a flavor reminiscent of a Collaborative class I had at OSU but it was somehow more intense, and not just because it was for a great Portland company. It was the community that was there every step of the way. No professor or mentor at OSU was ever as involved in a project as the Colaboratory community was in such a hands-off way. Although class is no internship, I think academics could learn something from the Colaboratory process.

Vo & Kim working hard on taking flower photos

Of course, it could have just been the team I was in. UBER thanks to Mary McPherson, Bryan Davidson, Kim Karalekas, and Christine Vo for being UBERawesome. The greatest attention deficit team to have ever graced Portland! Seriously though, we got some quality work done. No one who is genuinely ADD could have pulled that off. Right? Right. Ryan Christensen may not have picked our group as the “winner” but our work is packed with serious chocolate-chip kudos.

UBER thanks to CMD Agency, Livengood | Nowack, and Asterix, as well as all the agencies that were involved in Colaboratory. Friends forever.

The Ladies of Lattice process video!

So CoLaboratory was a fabulous experience, I learned so much and met a lot of new people. Athough not yet perfect, I think the program did great for its first year and have high hopes for the potential it has. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to get exposure to great ad agencies and people.

Next week I will begin my odyssey for a job! I have a few things lined up, but I have a lot more informational interviews to schedule. I’m really looking forward to this process and I am ready to dive into this industry head first.

A quick overview… 

Basically we won! And both teams kicked ass.

Congrats to the ladies of lattice for all your hard work and everything we put into this project. I look forward to working with all of you, including team Kiwi in the near future, when we sit in on the creative meetings with Ryan and Sameunderneath.

YAY!!!

Tomorrow is final pitch day. I’m sitting at at StudioBard, practicing like no other for tomorrow. And honestly, I’m scared shitless. First ever pitch to a real client… this isn’t some stupid class project where no one gives a rat’s ass. This is real life people!!!!

I am living and breathing and sleeping Sameunderneath now. I am in love with my pitch and all the awesome stuff we’ve designed.

Kiwi, you have some tough competition. Team Lattice is a strong group of women who love competition.

Best of luck to both teams, this has been an awesome six weeks. 

Remember to smile, it makes your butt tickle

We are working our little Lattice’s off getting ready for our pitch on Friday.! Thanks to CMD for letting us use your office to work late last night. Only 2 days left COLABORATORY interns.

Obliviously, I am not doing a very good job updating this blog, because it is my second to last day here at Ascentium and this is my first post… I know, I know (keep the comments to yourself). Mason West, a writer here at Ascentium as well as a member of the PAF Committe, is probably shaking his head at me right now in disgust.

What can I say about Ascentium… well it’s probably the most interesting agency I’ve been at thus far. Ascentium is an interactive agency but that is just one part of what they do under the larger umbrella of Ascentium. If I understand it correctly the three parts of the biz are: Interactive, CRM, and Infrastructure. And magically all the different departments overlap together and are used in a way to enhance the client’s needs. In all honestly, I don’t know any other company who does something like this, and from what I hear there isn’t one. James Rice, Creative Director of Portland’s Ascentium explained it by saying (now I’m paraphrasing here), Ascentium figures out creative ways to use technology, and that is exactly what they are doing.

My time at Ascentium has pretty much been me being a fly on the wall. Just being a sponge and soaking up everything I can and trying to compile it together and make sense out of it. I got the opportunity to talk with Mike Caplan, Ascentium’s Engagement Manager, who was very honest with me about the ins and outs of the Account Services side of an agency. It was refreshing to get a straight to the point description of what account people do, and how do be successful in this business. The main point I took from my talk with Mike was that being an account person isn’t rocket science, but it does require you to have an amplitude for emotional intelligence and a passion to be “on” 24/7.

Not only do you need to be able to communicate with your team and clients effectively but you need to be constantly thinking about what you can do to make them more successful in their jobs. As a project manager you are responsible for the delivery of all projects across the organization, you are the glue connecting all the different parts together. So, being “on” 24/7 is a must, or your team will fall apart.

During this conversation with Mike, I kept thinking, “oh this is me, I am that person, trying to please people and help wherever I can” but then something that Mike said caught my attention. He explained that you do everything you can for your team and look out for them, but realize that there is no one looking out for you, and that no one is there to make your job easier. Which is sad, but then I realized he might have been wrong… Mike, you are that person to your PM’s, right?

I think I said this in my last post, but having this internship has been such an amazing experience for me. Not only have I realized that Portland is where I want to be (sorry Mom, the bay area will have to wait for now) but this is what I want to do, and who I want to be. And you know it might change 6 months from now, but that’s ok. For now, I’m going down this path, I may not have it all figured out but I am moving forward in a direction that looks good for now. And I’m excited to be here!

I would just like to share a few quick thoughts on video editing. I’ve been working on a pitch for the past six weeks, for local client Sameunderneath (check out the website sameunderneath.com). All throughout these past six weeks, I have been documenting my agencies I’ve traveled too, the places I’ve been in Portland, and all the great people I have met. PAF wants a documented video of everything through the past 6 weeks.

So I sat down at my dad’s studio with all the images, video and sound that I had. We worked from 1 – 10:30 and the video is still not finished… and it is only 5 minutes long!!! WTF?! How is someone supposed to edit a movie like Batman that is 3 hours long… that would take seriously like, I’ll do the math…Almost 2,000 hours. Um thats like a year or something…lol.

So, I came to the conclusion that I hate, hate, hate video editing (no offense video editors, I now appreciate your job much more).

Hello Colab Followers,

It is the very last Friday meeting before the big pitch and The Ladies of Lattice are rockin! We’re at a point where we feel comfortable and proud of all the work we have done for this Sameunderneath project. It’s been one hell of a ride, and it’s finally coming all together.

Check out our logo below!

lattice_logo

and after only 5 hours.. i managed to do it! determination + patience are a pretty kickass traits to have. I had to go through the damn reformatting process so many times because i always messed it up. Come to find out as the time ticks on and the night gets brighter, this is what I began to see:

now i’m a zombie. off to Cotes Kokes now!

Bryan + Luke + I went out for a photo shoot tonight. Luke did a great job. See for yourself:

Christine Vo + Bryan Davidson

Tanner Springs Park

Today has already been crazy. I’ve met like a bazillion people, and I’m pretty sure I’ve walked around in a couple of circles, trying to find my “cube.” This is the hugest agency…I’ve never been so overwhelmed. I’m sorry for the person who had to be here the very first two weeks… I would have cried because of all the info I had to pack into my brain.

But, on a more positive note… Ron who works in the audio/video department knows my mom and dad from the audio industry… He makes me feel a little more at home. And Thorin, he is head of the interactive design department…he is great. He seems super down to earth. 

My only complaint is that I can’t figure out how to get on the email… or sync up to the calender program or any of that good stuff. Hopefully by tomorrow I can figure all that out. I can’t believe it’s almost lunch time. I’m starving…and I miss Carter (the love of my life).

I can’t wait to get settled and finish our design stuff for the pitch.

Love.

I can’t even begin to say how sad I am to leave Ilona, the construction workers outside, and the smell of rotten fish from Masu the sushi restaurant next door. I love this building and everyone who works for the company. Chris is awesome, and I was so happy that I got to meet her in person when she flew in from San Fran. Katherine and Stephen are great assets to the team and not to mention wonderful and very funny people. And of course, I’ve been working side by side, going to lunch and even doing some people watching with Ilona. I will miss everyone dearly.

Thank you all for the opportunity of a lifetime.

So have you ever read the names of the vitamins you are taking? Well I found out some very interesting ones…

Would you take something called “Meno”……

Or how about “Prosflow”……

Both very interesting names… lol

I’ve been seriously overwhelmed as of late. In a good way? Absolutely. Do I want more? Heck yes.

My mental filing system for ideas, questions and crazy thoughts needs an upgrade. It’s like when you need to complete a huge task, like spring cleaning for your house, and you have no idea where to start………so you…….wait…….for inspiration……

Well I’ve had plenty of inspiration as of late.

I spoke with Doug, Executive Creative Director at ID Branding (fantastically motivating)

I accompanied Jennifer and Megan from Livengood & Nowack to a client photoshoot (hectic but fun)

I attended the Oregon Brewers Fest (yummy and lowd)

I made dinner with Kim and Christine (yummy but not so lowd)

I drank beer at a random dowtown brewery with Luke and Bryan (cheerful, literally)

I visited the farmers market and ate the best raspberries of my life (eye opening)

I attended a cool party at The New Group and was introduced to their interactive world (super exciting)

And did other stuff too, both fun and mundane

Things are good.

Tomorrow will be my last day at Grady Britton, a fantastic full service advertising agency, it’s crazy to think I have almost been here for two weeks already…

Over the past two weeks, I have been able to see first hand how an agency works. The most interesting thing I have observed is how account, creative, PR, and media people all work together. It’s actually amazing because you have so many different types of personalities all working to accomplish one common goal, to produce amazing work for the client. Not only do the people here at GB do that, but they have fun doing so! Whether it be at the weekly softball game, a funny email, or singing happy birthday to someone they just met 3 days prior (thanks again!)

What I did: Even though I am technically an account intern, I got the chance to see different parts of the creative process, like sitting in on a voice over for a :30 spot. I also went to a media event with KOIN 6 at the Zoo for the Fall Preview. (Advertising has its perks!) I worked on a couple of interesting research projects and was able to share my findings and make suggestions. I had a couple of conversations about Sameunderneath, being able to get professional agency perspective while working on a project like Sameunderneath is invaluable. And I even managed to put my good packing skills to use and help GB get an early start on their move across the river.

Welcome sign on my first day!

I'm told, "Once a Griffin always a Griffin"

Having this internship has reaffirmed my career goals. I want to be in marketing/advertising. The people are fun, creative, full of energy. And the work is challenging, but rewarding. You are constantly on your toes, multitasking, keeping the client happy, and being crazy busy. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO!

It’s seriously probably been over a week since I’ve blogged. I’ve been so busy with SUN and my project that I’m working on at Asterix. I get no sleep anymore… I am working 24/7 and when I’m not working, I am thinking about work, and when I’m not thinking about work, I’m dreaming about layouts, and color guides, and typefaces… INSANE.

But this is what I love… I really do breathe, live, sleep, eat design…LITERALLY.

Keep Portland Weird. That’s the catchphrase I’ve heard bandied about on T-shirts and Portland’s print media over the past few weeks. I wish it sounded more original; there are other cities that make use of same statement, including Oregon’s own Eugene. There are plenty of “original” people here, so naturally I expect a certain amount of Portland specific things from these “Portorigines.”

The Colaboratory internship program certainly fits the bill as something borne of Portorigines. It takes courage or at least a little proclivity for experimentation to be willing to start something like this and to participate within it. I was reading the Willamette Weekly last week and came across a feature on “Spinnaface,” a Portland hip-pop figure dressed head to toe in black with a shiny chrome spinning hubcap (or “spinna”) affixed to his face. “How will I recognize him?” Asked the reporter to Spinnaface’s manager, and the answer was “He’s Spinnaface. He has a spinna for a face.” I think this is kind of like my experience in COLABORATORY. When asked what I’m doing for it, or what my experience has been like, I feel like making a similar statement. “I’m in the Portland Ad Federation’s Co-LABORATORY. I’m being paid to get experimented on by the advertising community.”

Of course, I’d wink at the end and say “don’t worry. It’s like being experimented on by the French Pastry Community.” It’s tasty fun. Some pastries may not be my favorite but they’re all loaded with butter so how bad could it be? Don’t let my analogy be lost upon you. This past week I’ve been working at CMD Agency, and while it’s a wholly different experience than my one at Livengood | Nowack, it serves up its own dish of adventurous flavors. I’m admittedly unused to the size of this pastry. I feel like I’ve nibbled at its edges all week and don’t know how to open my mouth up large enough to take a bite without straining my muscles. Art Directors Matthew Ryf and Thorin Nielson gave me some interesting internal jobs to work on but they were swamped by a pile of tight deadlines so I was left to myself for lengthy spans of time.

CMD comes across to me as a giant piano wire, taut and capable of producing music whenever it is tapped by a client, but it sometimes strains upon its passions, always risking going out of tune. Looking at CMD’s work I would admit that if it does go out of tune, it must not very often. They’re very attentive to the process of getting things done and doing it well. I appreciate this sensitivity and the people there seem at large a generous group both with their minds and through their collaboration. I imagine if I were here longer, the recipe for survival is part fearlessness and part passion for excellence and self-improvement.

Designer Leticia Kleinberg at CMD has been an inspiration for achieving my goals. When I said (not despairingly) that there is always someone “younger and better” than me out there as far as graphic design goes, she replied “yes, but there is only one Luke.” It’s not like I haven’t heard that before, but I give Leticia a bucket of kudos for reminding me that my career is more than my portfolio. Speaking of Kudos: I offer a whole jumbo margarita of kudos to Livengood | Nowack and the entire cast of fantastic characters that make up that agency. A special thanks to Megan Clark for mentoring me during the 7 days I was there, to Colette Krol for her extremely helpful comments on my project for Sameunderneath, Rick Dalbey for giving his time to offer me an informational interview and some context on the Portland advertising world, and Jennifer Mele for her great positivity.
I didn’t want to leave them. Having sat in on their meetings of upcoming and current jobs, I could hardly stand it that I wasn’t going to be there to help them. I was just barely getting the hang of the job and how one approaches a project of any size. I really like éclairs, and L|N is a substantial éclair of quality work and genuine people. They showed me that “Mad Men” really is a relic of the 60s. Only true masters of advertising could convince an advertising skeptic like myself that I need advertising in my life. Wicked! Wicked! Wicked!

Keep Portland Wicked. Maybe not. But somehow Portland is casting a shadow on cities much larger than itself. Could I really get an experience like this anywhere else in the states? I’m not so sure. Maybe I could get more epic, all-encompassing experiences in NYC or from other large culture centers, but I imagine they would suffer from the natural subversion that Portland possesses. Who wants mainstream anymore… or at least mainstream as it was defined in the age of punk? If mainstream is going to look like Portland then give it to me—but right now there aren’t a lot of places that have as unique a set of people that actually get things done.

My collaborative group, similarly, is comprised of a group of people who are driven but not sterile, and interested in quirkiness without being objectors to pragmatism. Our working style has been freeform but almost paradoxically moves forward with itself in a fairly surefire way. Our biggest challenge has been to integrate our individual talents, skills and perspectives. In the past I have worked primarily with only designers and the client. Here the ingredients have been structured in a way that is unfamiliar to me. I have a new respect for copywriters and a sense of appreciation for account managers and planners. There is a bigger sense of roundedness to this collaboration than I’ve had in the past. Luckily, we’ve had the confidence to trust that each can hold one’s own as well as give up enough ownership over our personal skillsets to allow for some slurring of roles when we need it. Last Wednesday offered us our first dose of disagreement within the group but we muscled our way through it on, I believe, the merits of our strong wills and mutual desire to create a successful campaign. Our disagreements were on what target audiences deserve the most attention, and in the same breath, what it means for Sameunderneath to rightly claim the word “authentic.” It’s a tricky road to travel. I think it makes it a little harder given the fact that Sameunderneath is saintly compared to most companies; it raises the stakes and complicates approach. People in this foggy realm of social responsibility are ten times more critical than those of the mainstream, (from personal observation) and as such they can sometimes make angels look like the devil if they get P.O.ed. It’s unfair and doesn’t make our job any easier. Reaching an agreement, we realized, was possible only when we stuck to the guns of the client and we play their champion. It’s the best you can do. Even in Portland, reality is bigger than weirdness.

Not that they never mix. In actual reality I have seen a number of indecipherable things, including a parking garage filled with a disarray of washing machines (the next day they were all gone) and a man in the Pearl Whole Foods who made a “sandwich” out of what looked like two stiff, square books (or tiles with writing on them), a liberal layer of Skippy peanut butter (SKIPPY) and five gourmet marshmallows. He made the deli shrink wrap it.

Put that on your plate and eat it.

We just finished up our third week of COLAB at Pop Art, for our weekly Friday team meetings – long story short, things are really starting to come together (for both teams, I believe!) and we’re starting to get really excited about how things are falling together!!!

Again, COLAB is going extremely well, everyone is seeming to enjoy their second agency and everyone is so supportive. Thank you Jamie, Hallie, Heather, Mason, etc. You guys rock!!!

This is a cross-posting. Originally posted by me on The New Group Blog. Figured my readers would want to read it too.

My first day here at The New Group is coming to a close. The first thing I noticed was how difficult it is to find this palace in the clouds. As a cyclist, MacCadam Ave was a cruel mistress. As a mild insomniac, I was quite groggy still this morning.

Fortunately, I was met with smiling faces, a cup of coffee and a slew of introductions. One would be hard pressed to find a group of people that know as much about their profession as the people I encountered today. Each department and each employee had a different style and rhythm. Many of my discussions focused on social media and the “everybody’s got one” blogosphere.

How can a brand improve its image in the digital landscape? There have always been discussions about products and services by consumers. Now, these conversations and opinions are being migrated to the digital arena, giving them much more impact on consumer opinion. Brands must be willing to listen to consumers and help shape the conversation. Who better knows the consumer than the consumer? Direct communication channels are powerful tools, and this is just the tip of the conversational media iceberg. It takes research and a personal “feel” for the pulse of the internet to know where people are getting their information, videos, images and anything else you can dream up. I have blogs that I have deemed to be interesting to me, and I am discovering new “culture magnets” all the time. For brands, it is essential to find who these culture magnets are for your target and observe what they are saying. These are the new “cool kids”. No longer do all the cool kids wear leather and smoke cigs behind the gym. They are devouring information and dispensing it to the average kids who are, like me, sitting in front of laptops and trying to make all the cool kids like them.

Photo Credit: Jen64

These opinions and feelings towards the brand will only increase in volume and ability to craft opinion in the coming years. In other words: It’s a big deal. I admit to being new to the world of analyzing such mountains of data, but these folks seem like they have been doing this for years. Maybe, I will pick up a thing or two in my time here at The New Group.

Throughout my (short) tenure here I will be attempting to call myself a copywriter. I became interested in copywriting because of my two loves: solving problems creatively and seeing my writing in giant letters on a billboard. I don’t have a huge ego, but where else can you write cheeky, snarky pieces and not have to expose anything about your personal feelings. It’s a great way for smart alecks like me to define problems and find unexpected solutions. Great writing is hard to define, but when your writing makes a direct, understandable connection to the target, great things happen. Customers are compelled to buy, the sun breaks through the clouds and everyone gets a pony. TNG has quite a few of those moments, and I hope to learn from some of the best pony-givers in the industry. Let’s creatve something beautiful.

The Griffins are like a family to me. They welcomed me into their home and allowed me to drink their coffee, annoy their art directors and tag along with their copywriter like I was a lost puppy. They didn’t even act annoyed when would suggest outlandish things, like a life-size cheetah replica, or demanded that everyone speak pig latin on Wednesdays.

It has to be at least three times this big.

Okay, so those things never really happened. But, the people at Grady Britton were some of the more entertaining and kind souls I have met in a while. GB really let me go with projects and write whatever I felt and included me on many brainstorming sessions. It was really inspiring to see people doing the same things that I do….but better.
Observations:

1) Never, ever feel like your idea isn’t good enough.

2) “Gumballing” is where you let ideas drop out of your brain and directly out of your mouth (Thanks Julie)

3) Don’t eat the entirety of your thai food on your lunch.

4) M & Ms make any meeting seem livelier.

5) I never had to get coffee for somebody (not even once!)

6) When pitching clients, remember to talk about how awesome they are.

7) Im uh bayd spelur. (Why don’t they make an Idiot’s guide to not making an ass out of yourself by misspelling words when you’re a copywriter. Damn you spell check and learning foreign languages!)

8) Great work does not come easy.

And so, Griffins, this is my thank you. My sad farewell. You may never be the same without me. I offered cheeky banter, mediocre writing and endless questions for people who know more than I do. What are you going to do with all your fee time now that I’m gone? Alas, now I have to go be awkward somewhere else. Thanks for your support, your encouragement and blowing my brain apart with your crazy ideas.

“]

cred: [phill h

So last Thursday was my last day at Anvil Media Inc. The interns are supposed to spend 2 weeks at each agency but in reality I was only at Anvil for 7 days, NOT ENOUGH TIME! Everyone was is so welcoming, all 12 of them, and knowledgeable about SEM. Even the new employees (who had just been there for a month) were very active in the agency, organizing softball games and presenting new tools they found in all staff meeting.

There is no time to waste when you are at a small agency, you have to jump in and get your feet wet! Being at a smaller shop has several advantages, you get to play a large role in the agency, take on more responsibilities and wear many different hats. At a smaller agency everyone gets to know each other real fast! At Anvil there is a good balance of this. They work really hard, but they also know how to have fun too! I think this is really important when looking for a job, you need to look at the company culture and see how employees interact with each other, and how the overall environment is at the company.

My last day at Anvil was bitter sweet, because I felt like I had just gotten there! I was just starting to feel like I was fitting in and beginning to understand the ins and outs of SEM. But I guess that’s how COLABORATORY is set up, which is the sweet part! I get to experience the same thing at 3 different agencies. Can’t wait for what’s to come. I will leave you with some pictures I took during my 2 weeks at Anvil. ENJOY!

Anvil Media Inc. LogoWho can grow the best mustache in 2 weeks?

This past weekend Mary and I checked out the Mississippi Street Fair #1 to visit the Sameunderneath store and booth and #2 to see what the Mississippi Street Fair was all about which ended up consisting of: enjoying good food, people watching, drinking horchata (it was good, but would have been great with a little ice), watching performers, and getting some pretty serious flip flop tanlines. It was a LITTLE hot, but all in all, great 1st experience with the Street Fair.

Here’s a video of one of the groups we came across:

Grady Britton Brightens Day, But Evades Victory

The GB Griffins started off hot, but their fire was cooled by the current of Upstream Advertising. Despite their good looks, effortless style and superior bike riding abilities, the Griffs couldn’t get it done at Wilshire Park.

In a 12 – 5 decision, Upstream Advertising cooled the red-hot GB squad. The Griffs were unbeaten this season coming into the match. However, the “crack” of bat seemed to find Upstream’s lofty shots long and in the gaps.

A strong showing by both squads. One spectator commented “That was the single greatest display of athleticism I have ever witnessed”. The Griffins are looking ahead to the next battle, with new uniforms rumored to be arriving soon.

Injury Report:

Scott – “All over” hurt (late game “slide” to 3rd)

Michael – dive + knee + ground = no more leg modeling

Bryan – Bruised ego, mouth of dirt (traction problem)

Bonus:

note: Upstream Advertising is actually Downstream Advertising. I’m just cheeky and a poor loser.

My blog is looking a bit static so I thought I would put up some pretty pictures of my time in Portland so far….

Some might approach a relation of this experience a day at a time, or even at the beginning. But I can’t guarantee that the story related to you in that manner and in that order contains the characteristics of a plot that rises in intensity steadily until a final conclusion. Because of this, week one might as well start at the end as much as the beginning.

Kiwi Copywriter Extraordinaire

It’s 5PM, Friday the 11th of July. My first full-day team meeting has concluded and my colleague Bryan Davidson (of our self-named agency “Kiwi”) has offered to give me a ride back to the house I’m staying at in Southeast Portland. I plunk into his moody Fiat convertible and beats from Ratatat come oozing out of the car’s speakers as they meet the late afternoon sun. As we cruise down Martin Luther King Boulevard I’m not sure what I’m supposed to feel after what has been a whirlwind week. Was I overwhelmed? Friday morning Ascentium copywriter Mason West suggested (not without a smack of pleasure) that if our teams Lattice and Kiwi weren’t suffering we might not be working hard enough. The week started off the same, after Ryan Christensen gave the rundown about his company, SameUnderneath, for our collaborative project. People supposed that we were overwhelmed and certainly the information was and is overwhelming. But I didn’t feel it. All week I didn’t feel it. Where were my usual nerves? My gripping fear of working against the clock to prevent impending, nearly inevitable failure? Why the hell was I… oh god… enjoying myself?

Something else, surely, was afoot.
Thursday, the 10th around 2:30PM.
I’m sitting at my desk at Livengood Nowack, working up a lather trying to get some comps ready to send up to Rick Dalbey, their illustrious Creative Director who surely plots my destruction (see below).

Lunch Tuesday July 08

I’m about a half hour behind when I had hoped to have the comps completed and I am silently cursing myself to work faster given that I wouldn’t be able to take care of it on Friday due to my Kiwi meeting. I’m humming along on my fourth cup of tea and listening to Frank Sinatra over my headphones trying to spirit myself to deliver the product. I know now that this feeling of tension in my body is not a sensation of being overwhelmed. This is having fun.

I laughed on my first day at Livengood when Rick told me he would get me right to work on some wee coupon designs. It wasn’t that I thought he was joshing me but that maybe they were actually going to give me something to work on right away. I hadn’t expected that. Coupon or not. This is the first time when I realized something else. I gotta start “expecting.” No no, not that kind. My very first day at Colaboratory and I tell a group of Colab organizers that I had “low expectations” for the program, which was not exactly accurate, nor particularly complementary. Instead I meant to say that I did not know what to expect since everything seemed so “whisper-whisper hearsay” with what we’d actually be doing in what order. Questions I had E-mailed went unanswered the month before, and I had started to believe that they didn’t even know what was going to happen. I learn on Monday that was the point, we make it happen. Given this realization I knew I had to restructure the way I was approaching what I wanted with the internship. It’s not just a stepping stone to a full time job, but a way of vaulting myself over barriers of perceived limitations. So as I ride in the Fiat back to my house on Friday I realize that I’m starting to see ladders in place of pits, and this feeling I’m having is not that of being overwhelmed but a sense of destination.

I have been given a reputation management project to work on at Anvil this week. Check out Anvil’s site to see what it’s all about! Having to work on a client project is such an amazing opportunity, I get to contribute to Anvil’s team and also learn what the world of search marketing means. In saying that, I started the project last Thursday and did about two hours worth of work, and then when I got in this morning and started back where I left off. Then at 4:30pm this afternoon I was told that there was some miscommunication, and I was given the wrong set of keywords to do my research on. Meaning, half of the work I did was just for fun!…

I could look at this situation in two ways… is the glass half empty or half full? And you know what, I’m a glass half full kind of girl. Even though some of the work I did will not be used, I still learned something from doing it. And it only prepared me for tomorrow when I will get the correct list of keywords for my research. Tomorrow, I will be faster and more efficient in my day because the process won’t be new to me anymore. Things happen and for me the best way process unfavorable situations is to try and find the positive in them.

This is how all meetings should be:

Big thanks to Henry V for supplying the bagels and sugar. Also posted on Team Kiwi.
Weekend was busy, I have so many blogs queuing, I need to sit down and get them out of my head. More tomorrow.

edit: Sorry Mary!

Here’s the video:

Special thanks to Henry V for hosting us. The crossbow is being drawn…

edit: Sorry Mary!

This past week has been a whirlwind, it’s hard to believe it has already passed!

Yesterday I had a great time working with my group over at Henry V (which is a pretty cool place to call your office, by the way). It was great having an extended period of time to work on one project, we got a ton of brainstorming in. Everyone’s roles really started to come out too, so it was interesting to observe our interaction and the dynamics of the group. I was able to start playing my part as account manager and did my best to organize the group and work flow, with the help (thank god) of Kim. It’s definitely not as simple as it sounds! More challenges came up with our project that are going to be interesting to find solutions for. Mmmmmmm……strategy…….

I had an awesome time today hanging out at the Mississippi Street Fair, checking out the scene and SameUnderneath store/booth. Kim and I interviewed the manager at the store and Grant gave us valuable insight into the store and its customers. I also walked away with some sweet discounted clothes too…. I loved the atmosphere of Mississippi Ave, it reminds me of a neighborhood back at home called the Tower District, really vibrant and artsy. I can see myself going there a lot to just walk around if nothing else.

I also went to Normandale Park this morning to take my dogs out and met a few cool people and saw a bit of the Hollywood neighborhood. I’m slowly getting a random tour of all things Portland and have been liking the diversity of what’s out there. I’m still screwed up in my directions though for some unfathomable reason.

At Fish Marketing I’ve keeping busy with small projects, for the time being. I did some reasearch on competition for a client marketing plan earlier this week, and I saw it come through in the pitch on Thursday (which made me feel useful). It was cool to see the difference between an in-person and over the phone client pitch. I’m looking forward to the time that I can do some pitching of my own.

Tomorrow I want to explore Broadway here on the East side, go furniture hunting, get my oil changed, maybe see a movie and eat some tasty food. It looks to be a great Sunday!

This is Day 4 in COLABORATORY and my 3rd day at Anvil Media Inc, a search engine marketing firm. I have gotten the chance to go to two client presentations one for Conordia University and the other was for Travel Portland. I can tell I’m going to be using Travel Portland’s website a lot this summer! It gives great information about what’s going on in Portland and the greater metro area from concerts to gardens to the best places to eat and drink!

Tomorrow is the first day the two teams are going to meet to work on the marketing/pr campaign for Sameunderneath. We technically only have like 5 days to put the campaign together so we are going to be working our butts off and meeting outside of our scheduled times. Here’s the break down of the two teams:

Lattice Agency: check out our blog!

• Me (Heather Schwartz) – Account/Project Manager
• Allison McKeever – Account/Project Manager
• Whitney Bard – Designer
• Melissa Casillas – Designer
• Megan Nuttall – Copywriter

Kiwi Agency:

• Kimberly Karalekas – Account/Project Manager
• Mary McPherson – Account/Project Manager
• Luke Rolka – Designer
• Christine Vo – Designer
• Bryan Davidson – Copywriter

Can’t wait for tomorrow to see everyone again, and get together with Lattice to bring all of our ideas to the table. Being at Anvil Media for a couple of days has already given me a lot of good ideas to implement into our marketing/pr campaign for Sameunderneath. See everyone bright and early tomorrow morning.

OK. So I’m sure as all of you know, our client is sameunderneath… the brainstorming is underway and each and every team member is hard at work at their agencies, collecting and gathering knowledge to share with everyone. I hope all of you ladies are as lucky as I am to have such a large and welcoming team of people at your agency. Here at HMH, the staff has been so helpful and later today we are going to have a “gig” (that’s what they call a brainstorming session with members from each department…) LUCKY ME! This will hopefully help to stimulate some ideas from the pros…

Can’t wait until tomorrow. I’m signing out ladies.

-Whitney

Brought together by Portland Advertising Federation’s internship program, Colaboratory we are the ladies of Lattice. While interning at three different agencies each, we will be developing a marking/pr plan for local clothing rockstar, sameunderneath.

MEET LATTICE

Heather Schwartz {account/project manager}

Allison McKeever {account/project manager}

Melissa Casillas {designer}

Whitney Bard {designer}

Megan Nuttall {copywriter}

Yes I know, my Mom has her own cooking blog (she just started it) and I don’t have one? Why? I’ve been afraid… But not anymore it is time to start blogging!

Like I mentioned in my profile I’m going to be writing about my adventures in Portland for the summer with COLABORATORY.

To start off, this program is awesome! After orientation on Monday I was blown away by the interns, the participating Portland agencies, and Sameunderneath (my team’s new client). I can’t wait for what is in store for me, and I’ve already gotten a good taste of it after being at Anvil Media Inc for just two days.

I know this post is all over the place right now, I’m sorry-I will do better next time! But it’s 5:09pm and it’s time for me to go home for the day. Bye-4-now

Ok, so I survived the longest drive of my life (14.5 hours) from my dear old home to Portland. Most of my boxes are unpacked and thrown out, stuff put away, but I still am without a couch (which totally sucks when you’re a lounger like I am). My two dogs made it as well and are greatly enjoying the tiniest balcony ever that overlooks a not so busy street.

Yesterday I met my fellow interns for the Colaboratory program, which has been put together by the Portland Ad Fed. I found out that I will be interning at Fish Marketing, Livengood & Nowack and The New Group. Needless to say, excitement ensued as I started to develop my plan to take over the advertising world.

We were also introduced to our client, Ryan, who is the founder/owner of SameUnderneath, which is pretty much the coolest company you could create a campaign for. In life you occassionally come across real characters, people that are truly unique and comfortable with themselves. Ryan is that guy who knows and is known by everyone. He has a great perspective, one that I can identify a lot with (which is saying something seeing as he only gave an hour long presentation).

After the orientation the Colaboratory folks took us out to the nicest bowling alley I’ve ever seen. Swanky would be an understatement. I had a great time getting to know everyone over a couple drinks and really tasty bar food. They really found the way straight to my heart and totally sold me on Portland.

Today I had my first experience as an advertising intern at Fish Marketing in Lake Oswego. I got to meet everyone in the office, work on a research project for an upcoming pitch and eat the offices pretzels and goldfish. Tomorrow I’ll get to sit in on a pitch for regional car dealerships. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it works out and am stoked that it turns out I can wear jeans (take that corporate America)!

We’re Kiwi, a team of ad/marketing/branding/business/whatever the heck else interns with Portland Advertising Federation Colaboratory program.

In six weeks, we are to create a campaign for our client, Sameunderneath. We’re day 2 into the project and quite excited about this opportunity. We’ve created this blog to track our progress and would love any and all feedback.

To begin, here’s Bryan explaining how we created the name Kiwi.

First day of #COLAB (CoLaboratory) just finished up. I had a blast meeting all of the new interns and agency pros. They seem like a nice crop of professionals. Not too intimidating, but scary enough that you know they know what the hell they are doing.

We were split up into teams, and as far as I can tell, it’s a great match. I’m sure there will be many a disagreement, but nothing we can’t handle. Here are a list of the teams I stole from Christine Vo, because I couldn’t write fast enough. (Thanks Christine, see you soon for tennis/bball?) Links to blogs where I could find them. (Please let me know if you have one, let’s link love

“KIWI”

1. Kim Karalekas {account/project manager}
2. Mary McPherson {account/project manager}
3. Christine Vo {graphic designer}
4. Luke Rolka {graphic designer}
5. Bryan Davidson {copywriter}

“LATTICE”

1. Heather Schwartz {account/project manager}
2. Allison McKeever {account/project manager}
3. Whitney Bard {designer}
4. Melissa Casillas {designer}
5. Megan Nuttall {copywriter}

I liked it. I’m not going to spew praise, because it is too late. Too much blogging will make your head explode. I will just throw these words at ya: excited, sweet, nice, enthused, provoking, inspiring, bathroom breaks, lots of water, kickin’ threads, genuine guy, ideas, brain expanding, bowling, free, booze, food, good things, tired, so bad a bowling, fun people, ritzy bowling, where’s the smoking fat man? or The Dude? I’m going to be tired alot, much work, much more-er beautiful things to be made…

Here is a sequence of moving images put together to form the illusion of motion. Some call it YouTube, I call it my favorite way to kill 20 minutes. Why do you think this is posted at 1:15?

It is mere hours before my CoLaboratory internship begins. Soon, the lanky little fingers that clank out this blog will be crafting delicious prose, headlines, songs, jingles, and perhaps a haiku or two. I’m ready, like a lion stalking prey. No. Like a pregnant mother ready to pop out her firstborn. Your choice. Whatever simile you prefer, I am ready to catch the big idea and translate that into a gross amount fun, creative little moments I can hold in my hand and call my own.

As for my fellow interns, it’s going to be a great summer together. I propose meeting and greeting, then standing awkwardly for a few minutes until we stop being insecure and then forgetting a few names. This is my plan, at least. I hope you join in the revolution.

Image Attrib: canadianveggie

the jump off

Okay, so…I admit it. I’ve been a major slacker, and today I got had. I’ve been moving in to the new NW Portland digs and haven’t spent much time working the blog muscle. Normally, a month between blog posts would be okay. A little lame…but still okay. But today Grady Britton shone a little bit of light on this little narcissistic little niche in cyberspace I have carved out for myself in their blog.

So, little bit embarrassing to not have posted in over a month. Nevertheless, the people that I have been in contact with seem uber cool, and want to welcome me into their “nest”, how cute . One of the resons they are one of the best companies to work for in Oregon, per chance? (5th best to be exact)

Portland has been my second home for over a year now. I really thought I had a handle on things. I was going to stoll in, and act like I knew my shit. Seasoned veteran of the urban landscape, I envisioned. Well try telling that to my abandoned bicycle, two parking tickets, numerous overpriced drinks and my now deflated ego. Don’t get me wrong. Portland is still one of my favorite cities. I heart the bike-friendly, more refined older brother that Portland has been to me, now I just have to live in a two bedroom apartment with him. I’m sure we’ll be fine. Let’s make beautiful things together. Godspeed.

Been super busy. Getting a good amount of work done, and I’m pretty proud of it so far. I’ll let you in on my new favorite band. The Bowerbirds are an amazing trio out of North Carolina. They have been stuck in my head, so I demand to cram them into your head as well. The next Arcade Fire? Nah, too minimalist and quirky. But, they’re great, and have been weaving themselves into my consciousness. The Bowerbirds are re-releasing their album Hymns for a Dark Horse sometime in June. I’ll be getting the vinyl. You’ll just be picking pieces of your brain off the floor because they just blew your mind.

p.s. – read a review by somebody who knows what the hell they’re talking about here.

gritty, beautiful videos here.

photo cred: Ian Merrit

If you don’t already know about this by now, you’re probably not cool enough. Try harder to be cool. This stop motion/graffiti/wall art is mind blowing. The only reason I can get away with posting this about 10 days after it was posted to you tube is that nobody actually reads my blog…yet. Yeah, I can see the numbers of visitors, where you live, who you voted for, and if you’re a jackass or not. If you’re not a jackass…then you already know this is good. Good shit. The world needs more brains like this man.

I would love to see what this man’s creative process was/is. The flow and rhythm of the animations made it seem that it was all improv and he just kind of let the art grow organically. Is that possible? From my experience, execution that looks like it authentically lacks planning and grew without a game plan or a map, takes so much more planning. Take my hair today for example. I like to think I have a nice head of straight-enough and dark-enough hair. Nothing to write home about, but hey. When I am faced with the difficult task of styling my hair, I have two options. I can spend ten minutes in the shower washing my hair and other human things, and five minutes getting my hair ‘just right’. Just right entails looking like I try hard enough at my hair to make it look like I rolled out of bed, but I’m put together enough not to care (but I do). Confused yet? Or, I could just actually roll out of bed. But, then it would look like I actually rolled out of bed. Ew. There might still be drool.

So:

a) I like this guy. He can be my friend because he is good at art and I like people who are good at art.

b) It takes infinitely more effort to make it look like you don’t care, as opposed to actually not caring. I have a feeling this was a well planned, strategized and researched project. Creativity takes a lot of planning, a lot. Just ask any art student in Kinko’s at 3am.

I guess you can say I am excited ecstatic. The intense application and the rush to print my work at the last minute was worth it. I was accepted today for the Portland Advertising Federation’s CoLaboratory internship. I thought the work I put forth was thoughtful and maybe just a little awesome, and for some crazy reason…they agreed. I will be working as a copywriter at 3 different Portland agencies all while working on my pitch to the “mystery client”. If this sounds ambiguous to you, you are not mistaken. The details will work themselves out, as they usually do.

This is a great chance. A chance to see what the magic little element that takes rough, tired ideas and makes them new…hip even. I’m sure it will be different for every agency. Some may have giant foam bats and trampolines (or something similar) and others will probably be a bit more straight laced. Nothing matters but what comes out of the other end of the magic black box of the agency. Which black box furniture and culture is the most effective at producing unexpected and effective client solutions. Of course we can’t forget that the ideas coming out have to be brilliant and “get-behind-able”. I mean, when I get done with work, and I see my non-advertising friends, I have to be able to tell them what I did that day without having to feel embarrassed or like a politician.

In other words: No “Head-On” spots…no matter what they pay me. (Which isn’t much right now)