Evolution of the logo!

We started to develop on those trolley run logos that we worked on yesterday and came up with three logos total that we really like and put it on a t-shirt and I am going to share them with you now! I have to say that Katie really developed those children in the middle one really well and that idea was mainly hers but I still had input in the type and stuff like that. Check it out, and let me know what your favorite is!

When you get bored...you design

So today at the internship we are basically just waiting around on some creative briefs in order to move forward with anything else in the project. So instead of getting a hair appointment and checking facebook someone in the traditional media section of creative sent us a project for fun. It was a logo design for a walk/run they have here every april called the trolley run! Me and my partner in crime decided to work on it together to try to work with each others design styles to come up with something uniform. Well we had a lot of fun creating this logo that we finished, and it honestly kinda refreshed me and made me not think about San Fran for 2 hours while we worked on this. Check it out, it's below I have the old logo above our version on both white and blue. Let me know what you think!

Before

After

What's my mood? I'll tell you...

Save Me, San Francisco by TrainMusic

Today we got assigned the task of creating a mood board for San Francisco, after much work...this is what we came up with. This is the general concept for what we want our messaging to say, feel, look, and sound like. I know the song is kinda a weird choice but it feels like what we are designing on this end. I think you will understand after I'm all done....just be patient. We now begin developing messaging that goes along with this to hit on all of our entry points in our campaign.

Back to the starting line...

So today we got what we have been waiting for which is a brief from the creative department on where we are at and how everything is going. Well we where basically sent back to the starting line and then told to start over on some stuff and kinda plan on why and how on the concept rather than the pretty side (which I am really excited to get into).

Well since these aren't getting used I guess I can share them with you now to get your opinion. These are the logos that I developed for the San Francisco campaign, "Localize Yourself." These aren't getting used because we decided that their branding was already relatively new and not worth getting something new to direct users to. Here they are, as always they are my own work I created all artwork myself using illustrator (click to make larger)!

Killing Babies and Taking Names!

"Collaborative work is the result of lots of disagreement"

- Joe Scorsone

I don't think I could agree more, sometimes very frustrating and long exhausting disagreements. But hopefully it all ends up wel right? I have never really worked in a team atmosphere and this year I have learned more than anything that it is a very hard thing to master. All of my other interns have a lot of great ideas and are all great people, but I think we all agree that our personal idea is better, which is something I realized is a learning process. Sometimes what you are thinking, isn't the best for the project. Learning to just step back and realize that someone else has a better idea is a skill that they don't tell you that you need on your resume.

Here in ad agency world I was let in on a little tagline they use around here which is, "Don't be sad when we start killing your babies." Which is very true when you work on an idea for a couple weeks it becomes your baby then go into a meeting and they just say no, it always will hurt. You gotta have thick skin and realize they aren't saying it sucks, but for what they want it isn't the right direction.

If I could give any advice to underclassmen, it would be ask for criticism of your work. From anyone and everyone, what they say about your work or tear it down a little. Will help you realize that everyone has different opinions and you just gotta step back say thanks for the feedback and move on!

To continue on with my day, we are still working on the same project and we had a meeting with a VP today to explain it! We got all of our vehicles of getting the information out approved but are still working on an overlaying concept for the project. Any ideas shoot them my way!

Ready for more posts?

So I'm sorry I have been lacking in the posting department about this internship but I decided that I should be posting a lot more just to get my ideas out about where we are at with out specific client and maybe get some help from my followers (all 10 of you). Well if you didn't already know i'm the interactive creative intern at MMG Worldwide this summer and we have just been given a client as the interns. Our client currently is San Francisco Travel and we have been
given a mission and target market and everything. I'll break it down for you below and then share what we have come up with so far and then maybe I can get some feedback on where we are going/hope to go with this project.

First thing though, I just want to let you know one huge step that in my past design work at Pitt State we have always missed out on, and that is research. I kid you not, I have about 150+ pages of research, 3 books about San Fran, and countless websites! I think that is the one step that I have been missing in most of my past work. Maybe I will take a picture of my research binder to show you how much research we have to complete before the project even starts!

Objective: To effectively distribute tourism information to the visitors of San Francisco, beyond the current visitor’s center in order to entice visitors to extend their stay, become an advocate for the city, and to repeat their visit.

That is obviously our main objective for the project and all other medias that I end up developing the idea for need to hold this central theme true to what they do. So below I will show you some of our ideas thus far and how we plan on carrying these out.

1. Mobile Site

I believe that this is important because it really bridges the gap between the different medias and helps the user to navigaete throughout the city to make their stay more enjoyable. Below I have posted a mobile website that you can view on your computer that MMG has completed for Colorado Tourism that I think is a main inspiration for me behind this project.

http://www.colorado.com/m/

2. Kiosks/Trucks

This was an idea that I came up with after realizing that we need some way to make the user want to interact with the media that we are providing. I always feel that whenever I see a touch screen that invites me to participate I always interact with it! That is why we decided to use this media and to also develop a truck that could house different kiosks inside of it to make the concept more mobile.

Here is an image of the truck that we are looking toward using...



3. Ad Campaign

This is an obvious one and we haven't really even developed how we want the ads to look/feel/or location so this is really just something we know we want but havent' even started to develop yet.

4. Interactive Window Displays

San Fran mentioned to us that they currently have window displays placed throughout the city to help garner attention to the city in many different ways. Our idea was to place these windows in different neighborhoods and make them interactive but also informative. The window would basically say I love (Neighborhood) because or my favorite attraction is...and then there would be a screen that you would type in your favorite thing around the neighborhood. There would then be a list that is available to the left that would show what different people's favorite thing is populating live.


5. Facebook Campaign

This will tie in with our interactive window displays that we are creating so you can upload your favorite things about neighborhoods inside of the facebook app.

6. Street Team

We also are coming up with the idea to develop a street team that will be placed around the mobile truck that can help deliver different information to the consumer.

7. Street Signage

My last idea that I developed was a street signage system that would welcome you when you get in to certain neighborhoods and direct you to different attractions inside the neighborhoods. The purpose of this mainly is to get you to stay in the city and look around longer and more often!

Those are the main ideas that we have developed this far and we are actually presenting them to our mentors this afternoon so I imagine by the end of the week I will have a list of exactly the things I will be working on and what our campaign title is! That also reminds me, if you have any ideas of any campaign titles that would help out a lot, considering I am hitting a major road block. Our ideas so far have been, "Am I On Your Agenda," "Explore San Francisco," and "San Francisco 360." I have only been working on this for 2 weeks but just researching as much as I have been can get to be a bit of a headache at the end. Also none of these ideas are solely my own, we have an intern team that consists of me, Andrea (Mizzou Senior), Katie (KU Senior), Lindsey (KU Grad), and Jillian (DU Junior). WIth only one of those being another creative intern the rest being in media and account services. So don't think that I am taking all these ideas for my own and that I have developed them on my own know that I have a great team behind me.

Look forward to some more updates this week!

First Day!

So today was my official first day at my new internship at MMG Worldwide! It was a day full of housekeeping and getting a lot of what I will be doing this year all together. I found out some exciting news as we found out who our client will be as interns and that is, The City of San Francisco! We don't have any idea of what we will be doing yet, but all I know is that I am really excited to get started. I got my cubicle that I am in temporarily until space opens in the creative department tomorrow and I am so excited to finally be in here!

I had no idea of how big this company is or what clients they exactly work for, but some of my mentors are working with clients like Colorado, Barbados, Trump Towers, and more! Looking over some of the past intern work I finally felt content that I had the skills to complete the work that was needed. Just working inside this office has already made me feel more professional and that I have skills that are worthy of something.

It's really interesting to see how they handle payroll and traffic inside the office as to who is working on what project when. I always found that as confusing to figure out how much to bill the client and how to keep track of what you are doing but this cleared up and confusions I had. Their system was streamline and made complete sense to me already and it is only my first day, as a system like this should.

Well looks like 5:00 is coming around and I have finished most of my initial research for the day so I'm signing off and I will hopefully be catching up with you guys to fill you in on the details soon. Just hearing that we landed a client as large as the City of San Fran? That was huge to me.

J

"The Future" is closer than I think...

On Tuesday I will start the internship of my dreams at MMG Worldwide. I have been working towards getting an internship at an advertising agency downtown for over a year now, through the development of my resume (thank to Tracy), direct mailer, website, and everything else I have been working my ass off trying to finish.

Well on Tuesday I meet with the other interns and my supervisors and get to figure out what exactly I will be doing. I just thought I would make a post to let you guys know what will be going on and to check here for weekly (if not more often) updates. With the level of excitement that I have currently, I'm sure I'll end up posting everyday when I get home!

It seems that I have waited my entire college career to be able to do this internship. Not to try to get a job (although that would be nice) but just the opportunity to see my career choice in the real world. I want to be able to say that I am on the right track or that I truly do love what I do, even though I already do love it. I guess I could say I am excited to start, just to validate my choices thus far. If I don't get validated, I guess it was a good experience? Let's hope for the first option and not the second. But I am open to anything (that is not true).

So keep me in your thoughts as I embark on the next big journey in my life. I wish you all could feel my excitement.

Sidenote: I can't sleep. I have to be up at 5:30 and it is currently 1:00 and I haven't slept yet. I'm so excited and it is still two days away.

I Can See the Light!

I have just sent off just about all of my internship applications and all the deadlines have almost past. So you know what that means? The waiting period begins.

This is my least favorite but the least stressful time of the process. I just hope that I am given a chance to at least interview for most of my internships just cause then I feel like I am in more control of the situation.

But at least I know that I made one kick-ass leave behind for the interview and hopefully they like it. This weekend is the GIT banquet and I will be showing my portfolio, hopefully I will get some good pictures of my display so you guys can see more of my completed work that I have done. Time sure has flown by working on this project and hopefully my grades are still doing well, most of my interest has been on landing a good internship.

In other news, I'm currently trying to start a new class for the GIT department here at Pitt. Basically it is very reminiscent of other classes that KCAI, KU, UMKC, and other schools similar do and it is a senior show class. Basically I have pitched it as being all the seniors working together to put on a show that would point out all of our strengths and give us a chance to brand something as a group! Below I have some examples of what I would like to do, I think this is a genius idea and hopefully it makes it past just being an idea.

University of Central Missouri Senior Show

Kansas City Art Institute

Johnson County Community College

University of Kansas

Well that is all I really have to talk about right now, not a lot going on just waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Hopefully I have good news to share with all of you when I find out more details!

If you are a company that is looking for interns reading this, hire me! You won't regret it.

Find My Passion.

I have learned that sometimes it is necessary to pick your battles. Look at what you are fighting for, who are you fighting, and where their intentions are. Is it really worth it to waste emotions over this? Is it going to negatively or positively affect anyone’s life? I feel that I am constantly trying to insight change.

Some people are just brought into your life to challenge you and to make you realize that some things just aren’t that big of a deal. Life goes on. If no one will listen to you, who cares, keep your integrity and just back down.

I think that my experiences have taught me many things and one of those is to re-evaluate my priorities.

Sometimes it doesn’t take a large event to make you look back, but a million tiny events to finally realize that you can make a change. I believe that my intentions are in the correct place and that if I am given the right opportunity I will be able to create greatness.

I use the word greatness, very loosely. When I state the word greatness I consider the video I created for PSGAD one of my examples. I’m not saying that it was the best designed and cohesive info graphics. What I am saying is that after I created it I was bursting with pride, the feeling that I may have helped someone. If one person saw that video and it helped them through the day or it made them think they can make it, I did something right. That pride, the feeling that you are doing something right and helping someone is what I want to continue to strive for in everyday life. I feel as if I joined organizations on campus to help further my resume for internships, jobs, and experience. While I have been given great opportunities for all three I think I have lost my purpose behind it all, to feel that pride.

Internships have clouded my judgment in what I need to get from my life. I feel that in the process of trying to stand out and make my resume pop with all of my experience I lost myself. What do I want? Here is a bulleted list to explain.

- Help People
- Use graphic design, everyday
- Work for an advertising agency
- Continue to raise money for things that matter to me

Now don’t misunderstand this message. It is not saying that I do not want the internships I am applying for, that is the one thing that I do want. What I am trying to say is that, I am frustrated with the fact that I have to stand out so much when I should have just realized that myself is enough. I am one hell of a passionate individual and I fight for what is important to me. I don’t want an advertising agency because of the money or the clients. I want a job there because it gives me that pride, graphic design is my passion and I would love a chance to even learn a bit about how it works to make sure it is where I belong.
I need to stop trying to please everyone and think what does someone want from me. I don’t need everyone to like me, because I have enough people that love me. My opinions may alienate some or even offend others, but that is the joy of it. It is my opinions and my projects.

I hope you enjoyed my random train of thought. Can’t understand it?

Sparknotes version.

I need to start finding what gives me that pride and get back to doing stuff that was important to me, also nail a killer internship.

Inforgraphic: How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster

If you know me at all you know I am a sucker for a good infographic. When it came to my Pitt State Gives a Damn video it was just one huge infographic. Well I recently found this one through @aigakc on twitter. But I just found this really interesting and thought I would show it off to you guys.

Enjoy!


Via: Online MBA Programs

ADDY'S!

In case you haven't already heard...if you talk to me on a regular basis then I am sure you have heard by now, but I am officially an ADDY winner! I entered four pieces of work, but I have no idea which one is the one that one! I have a suspicion that hopefully (crosses fingers) two of mine won. I'm not gonna get my hopes up or anything but we will find out this Saturday night! I wish that you could spend a minute inside my head and you would understand then how proud/excited/anxious this makes me! Unfortunately for my first ADDY win I can't be there to accept the award, I will be in St Louis for a Campus Activities Conference! But nonetheless I am an ADDY winner and so proud. I have posted below the two videos that I have a feeling won, or in my opinion are the best of the things I have done. The first is Green is the New Black and the second is Pitt State Gives a Damn!

Green is the New Black from James Smith on Vimeo.

It Gets Better Infographic from James Smith on Vimeo.

Interesting Concept

I recently found this post that @AigaKC retweeted and it is a genius concept. You know that old photo that you took when you where a kid in those at the time sweet shoes? Well this has you take the picture in the same setting, clothing, and poses as those old photos. I have never been more interested in something and I have no idea why. I just think this is really cool!

Check it out!



Click this link to see more!

Anxiety.

If you asks any of my friends, you will come to find out a funny little fact about me. I have horrible anxiety about situations, so much of an anxiety that I get that horrible pit in the bottom of my stomach and just get incredibly nervous over random events. Don't get me wrong I am a strong willed person and usually force myself to get things done. But this anxiety lately has begun to set in strongly over one thing. Internship Applications.

I have yet to pinpoint the reasoning as to why I am so anxious over something that most people in college I feel like don't even bat an eyelash to. I feel as if I am treating my internship application as validation that I am on the right career path. Or getting that perfect internship will give me the nod that I am as talented as I think I am.

I really just think it is because I have never wanted something so bad. I know it sounds weird, most kids in college just wish for the new Xbox game or a six pack on the weekend. Me being the weird kid that is obsessed with my career path wants a kick ass internship where I will be exposed to everything that my career entails.

Lately as I am finishing up the final touches on my website and my direct mailers I have been having trouble sleeping or even thinking about other things. Let me tell you, once all this stuff is done I will be ecstatic. That is saying that I get my dream internship of course.

Here's Hoping!

Top Albums of 2010

10. Scissor Sisters- “Night Work”


I remember the first time that I listened to Scissor Sisters when they where performing on SNL when I was probably in 8th grade. All I thought was why would anyone like this style of music, this is horrible. Looking back at that kid I have to say what where you thinking. Scissor Sisters create a new genre with their music and it is a style that is unique and very intriguing. If you just listen to Any Which Way you can tell that it is a sexually driven song that sounds like it belongs in a different era. Also when they performed the song with my 2010 queen of everything Kylie Minogue it didn't hurt and that is honestly what probably made me download this cd.

Standouts: “Fire With Fire”, “Any Which Way”, “Invisible Light.”

9. Janelle Monae- “ArchAndroid: Suites II and III”

They overplayed the hell out Tightrope and I just assumed it was some talentless new tween but then I got home and saw Cold War and fell in love! This is not some talentless tween it the exact opposite. If you look at this album you will find tons of great hits. It is a little below mainstream level but if you get your hands on this work of art you won't be disappointed.

Standouts: “Tightrope” “Cold War”

8. Bruno Mars- “Doo-Wops and Hooligans”

Bruno Mars is like the Nicki Minaj of the male R&B singer side, featured on a ton of different songs and co-wrote a bunch of hits and received fame without even releasing an album. Well when his album finally dropped it wasn't disappointing like Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" (In my opinion too many slow songs). He has seveal hits on the cd and it is an album that you put in your cd player and don't even realize that you finished it an hour later. He received several well deserved nominations for Grammy's we'll see how his year finishes off. He already scored one number one with Just the Way You Are and I'm sure he will get a number one of close to it with Grenade.

Standouts: “Runaway” “Grenade” “The Other Side”

7. Maroon 5- “Hands All Over”

Maroon 5 is the artist that I will never get tired of. There is nothing really to say about their music, it is what it is. It's not a song you will jam to at the club but all their songs are something that you can just drive in your car to and chill out. All of their cds are great and always have songs that are similar to Taylor Swift lyrical wise but less whiney and more mature.

Standouts: “Never Gonna Leave This Bed” “Runaway” “Misery”

6. Katy Perry- “Teenage Dream”

Katy Perry had a hell of a year several number ones and also several Grammy nods. Haters step back. Someone is obviously here to stay. She may not have the best live voice (don't act surprised) but she has gotten a lot better than her last cd. But she has made great strides and shows it off on one of my favorites Firework.

Standouts: “Teenage Dream” “Firework” “The One The Got Away”

5. HURTS- “Happiness”

I don't know much about this band but this cd has been a staple in my music collection of 2010 and my Queen of Everything has appeared with them several times on the cd in Devotion and she also did a wonderful cover of Wonderful Life to help combat the teen suicide of LGBT youth that happened this year.

Standouts: “Wonderful Life” “Stay” “Devotion ft. Kylie Minogue”

4. Ke$ha- “Animal: Deluxe Edition”

Kesha released two cds in one year, if you consider Cannibal a full album. Animal had several number ones and other strong hit songs, and Cannibal is bound to have several as well. People think that Ke$ha can't sing or uses auto tune to strongly but I think there is a voice that she is hiding and she shows it off a bit on two of my favorite songs, Animal and Hungover which are both semi ballads and show a softer side that isn't all about popping pills and staying out until 5 in the morning. Another song that is worth mention that is off of "Cannibal" would be The Harold Song that has strong lyrics and talks about a past love of hers that she lost in the mix.

Standouts: “Hungover” “Animal” “Cannibal”

3. Kelis- “Fleshtone”

Kelis ain't trying to sell Milkshakes anymore, she is selling nothing but fierce fabulous attitude. Kelis is the queen of the reinvention this year with her next effort "Fleshtone." I have an addiction to cds that flow seamlessly from one song to next. It makes the album less of a track by track mash and more like an artistic effort. I think this is one of the most underrated artist of the year as well. Brave is my favorite from the track and she deserves more accolades for her strong work on this cd. Teaming up with Robyn for the "All Hearts Tour" helped as well.
Standouts: “Brave” “Scream and Shout” “Home”

2. Robyn- “Body Talk”

I believe that Robyn revolutionized the way that she releases music and the way that everyone else should release music. In case you didn't know Robyn released three mini albums this year which she just would package and release as she got music done she would release it. So this year we had Body Talk Pt. 1 2 and then a compliation of her favorites from all of them which was "Body Talk." Her lyrics are some of my favorite parts of her album in songs like Dancing on my Own with lyrics like "Stilettos on broken bottles, I'm spinning around in circles" just the fact that she took walking on eggshells and gave it a disco reinvention amazes me. She stated that she will continue to release music in this way and I believe it is the correct way. Release one single from each album and then release the compilation as your last. It makes her B-sides heard in a mainstream setting.

Standouts: “Include Me Out” “Dancing On My Own” “In My Eyes”


1. Kylie Minogue- “Aphrodite”

I cannot say enough good things about my 2010 Queen of Everything Kylie Minogue. This cd has been in my car since it came out and I can't even imagine how high the play count it would be at if it was on my iTunes. I'm sure it would be an embarrassingly high amount, though what am I to be embarrassed about? Kylie Minogue continues to release music that captures everything she is and her debut single All the Lovers, was my soundtrack to my past summer. She doesn't overhype herself and talk it up like it is the next "Album of the Decade" she just silently slips this epic masterpiece into the industry and stands back and watch the gays implode into glitter. When she tours this next year you better bet I will be front row and ready to see my queen of everything take the stage and amaze me.

Standouts: “Get Outta My Way” “Aphrodite” “All the Lovers”