Punk Paperclip

My last post was about my advertising class that I've been enjoying 0h-so-much. I talked about what is referred to as "punk marketing". Basically it's the idea of using new ways to advertise. Advertising to get people talking, not just tolerating a 30 second one-sided conversation. It's the idea that advertising does not have to require a large budget anymore.

This week in my advertising class we were put into groups, we were told to pretend we were an ad firm, and that Acco Paperclips has decided to use our services.

Problem: How does a person advertise a specific brand of paperclips when no one even knows brands, or has brand loyalty, or even cares about something as insignificant and as boring as a paperclip. Oh, and we have no budget.

Believe it or not, I'm pretty excited about this project. This weekend I've been brainstorming different ideas to bring to my group on Tuesday. Here are a few of my ideas:

1. A performance art piece using paperclips. Find volunteers from nearby art schools. Have these across the country, put on YouTube and pray that it goes viral.....because I don't think it would. This isn't a great idea is it? Maybe it just needs more love and development.

2. Acco can hold a competition where people use paperclips to prank someone at their office (film it of course). Upload the film to Acco's facebook page. Winning pranker and prankee are given some sort of insentive...maybe we would have to slide on the "no budget" rule for this one....or give them a lifetime supply of paperclips! Woot Woot!

3. Dump paperclips into those magnetic toy-catching machines. Illegal? Possibly. But hey, this is just a brainstorm!

4. I read somewhere online that during World War II, Norwegians wore paperclips on their collars to demonstrate their opposition to Nazism and anti-Semitism. Maybe Acco could work with this a bit and make it a national day of remembrance? I mean, when in America, do as the Norwegians do! http://www.paperclipcampaign.com/

5. I really wish that the sculptor Oldenburg had created a giant stapler..because if he had, It might be neat to make a giant paperclip net to put over the evil stapler. After thinking about that, I was reminded of Christo and Jean-Claude, the environmental artists. Which led me to my next idea.

6. Create an environment art piece using paperclips. Now, Christo and Jean-Claude would probably hate it because it would be more of a disruption of the environment than an addition to the environment. But hey, think how shiny it would be!

7. Random paperclip fashion shows! (Slightly like the performance art piece) I would be pretty confused if I was out shopping and all of a sudden there were all kinds of weirdos wearing paperclip garments. It would be important for everything to be covered, though...if you know what I mean.

So those are a few of my first-stage ideas. Remember, there is no judging during brainstorm session! Unless you want to judge in favor, and then that's okay. We'll see what my group thinks. I'm also excited about what they've come up with.

Let's Get Down to Business

I've just finished my first week back to school (and by the way, it is my LAST SEMESTER!). My past semesters have been filled with fun art classes where I was able to stretch my creativity, and I did not have to worry about reading assignments, writing papers, or taking tests....Oh the good ole days.

Now I'm just finishing up my minor (marketing) and so my days are filled with business classes. I start my day with Principles of Management, move on to Retail Management, stay in the same classroom for Small Business Management, and then on Tuesday nights I have my Sales Management class. The only class that I feel like I really belong in is my Principles of Advertising class.

I really find advertising interesting since only about 5% of advertising is actually effective. I might be exaggerating...Maybe it's only 1% that is effective. In a world with DVR's, we no longer have to put up with commercials. In a world with so much clutter, how can companies reach their market? It's interesting to think about. My textbook for this class is called "Punk Marketing" (not your average textbook), and the authors point out that old vehicles of advertising are dead. It's time that advertisers engage consumers. Maybe even let consumers apply branding to a product instead of trying to "brandwash" masses of people.

It has definitely given me a lot to think about. I really am looking forward to a whole semester in this class. As for the other classes, I think I will be learning important skills, but I'm not jumping up and down with joy at the thought of being there. But hey, I'm graduating in a couple of months!

A Rewarding Experience

I just finished my internship at FamilyLife on Friday. All in all it was a GREAT experience! I learned a lot about design and also my likes and dislikes. I learned that web design is something that interests me, but is not something that I'm passionate about. The design part is awesome...once I get into the HTML and CSS I'm not so sure. Since I tend to be a more intuitive thinker, I felt threatened and unsure when I had rules I had to follow. Maybe I just need to learn more and then I will like it.

On the other hand, at the end of the internship I was able to work on some projects for print, and it was the most fun I had had all summer. Call my nerdy, but I love knowing that my design will be tangible...in other words, I LOVE when the paper comes out of the printer all warm, glossy, and colorful! Colors seem more real on paper (of course, being the mac snob that I am, colors on a mac screen are pretty darn close!). So I know that I would like to pursue print design..that's what I love. Unfortunately print design is dwindling. So we'll see where I can go with that.

For now, I'm working on a revamp for my website www.thejuliesullivan.com. It will include all of the work I've done at FamilyLife (a great addition to my portfolio)! I'm also about to start my last semester at UCA. I think the next few months will be pretty exciting!

What Kind of Artist are You?

The Nag

Moving to a new apartment was exciting. Decorating the apartment was even more exciting. Today I spent most of my morning putting up my curtains, putting out vases and candles, and hanging my artwork.

When people see that I have my artwork hanging on my walls, they will often comment on how it must be really convenient that I don't have to buy artwork, but I can just paint what I want for a specific space. But you know what? It's not extremely convenient. Allow me to explain.

Today once I had hung the last painting, I plopped down on my couch to take a break. I looked around at all of the work I had done, and then my eyes landed on the two paintings hanging side by side that I had just put up. For some reason, I will always look at those paintings as unfinished. As I study them I consider taking them off of the wall to change things. Perhaps this area needs more red? Maybe this spot could stand to be darker? Did I work this area enough?

So now my paintings serve as a constant nag in my living room, which is a room with the sole purpose of relaxation, in my opinion. What if I did take the paintings down and work on them? Would the nagging go away? Maybe, but probably not.

Maybe I'm missing the whole point. I enjoyed creating those paintings. And I still enjoy them. And now my apartment has a personalized touch. And even though the paintings drive me crazy, I think it's a good sign that I am still actively evaluating what I've created. I think my next paintings will be even better...and maybe I'll hang them up in place of the current paintings. And then I will sell my old paintings to you!

And, on a completely different note, I want to apologize for my lack of writing skills. Maybe it drives you crazy how often I use "and" or "maybe" at the beginning of a sentence. And you don't like that style of writing (I guess it's not really a style...just lack thereof). Maybe you wouldn't like listening to me speak either. Because that's how I speak, too.

Confessions of a Migrating Intern

I have now been at FamilyLife for four weeks. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm apart of things now. It's amazing that I have become comfortable with my surrounds since my surroundings keep changing. I have moved cubicles THREE times since I have been here in just four weeks.

First I had E's cubicle. It was very clean, it even had a spare drawer where I could put my stuff.

Next was D's cubicle. It was NOT clean, and his drawers were overflowing. On a positive note, one of his drawers was filled with kit-kats and I had a view out of the window.

Now I am in J's cubicle. It's so clean there isn't a trashcan. But there is a lava lamp, and every morning I turn it on and I use it as my personal hand-warmer when my fingers turn blue (it's ICY in this office!).

At each cubicle I have had people come by to say,"E, you look a lot different" or "D, you've grown hair!", and even, "J? Is that you? I didn't recognize you at first!" After hearing these jokes a countless number of times, I've come to expect them from every single person that walks by. And even though I'm kind of tired of these jokes, common workplace etiquette says that I should just play along and pretend that it's the first time I've heard it.

Malfunctioning

I've always thought of design as a set of restraints and obstacles and it is the designer's responsibility to overcome these. When working with clients, you'll have color restraints, financial restraints, time restraints. And then of course, during the design process you will have composition obstacles, content obstacles, etc. On a normal day overcoming these restraints and obstacles is difficult enough. Today, my brain is malfunctioning, and I can't even get to the point where I can worry about these obstacles.

Here is one example. Today in Photoshop I had created a layer just to play around with. After ten minutes I decided that the layer wasn't adding anything to the design so I dragged the layer down to the trashcan in the layers toolbar. Then I noticed that I had another of the same layer. I thought to myself, "I don't remember copying this layer....oh well, I'll trash it, too". The same thing happened again, over and over again. I had about ten of these stupid layers built up.

If you know Photoshop at all, you are probably thinking, "Wow, Julie must have been dragging the layer to the "copy layer" button which is right next to the "trash" button. You would be correct in thinking this. I had copied this layer over and over and over and over again, all the while getting frustrated that I wasn't making any progress in trashing the layer.

Progress isn't happening today, unfortunately. I have been making stupid mistakes like this all day. Survival is key. Good design might have to wait. We'll see how I do after I finish my lunch break.

Battle of the Wills

This last week has been an epic battle of the wills. Usually I lose these types of battles, but I am pretty set on winning this particular battle.

If you remember me talking a couple of weeks ago about my storyboard project, you would recall that I was stressed about completing massive amounts of work by that Friday. Well, the good news is I worked like crazy and actually did manage to finish. The bad news is that they had more work planned for me. One of the thirty second commercials turned into a three minute music video. That means a lot more sketching. Since it was for the same client I figured that I had an obligation to see the project to completion so I grudgingly took the project on, while politely telling him that it would take me a bit longer because of my internship.

He then asked me if I would like to work on another commercial for him. I began to panic. How was I going to handle extra work while devoting my time to my internship? Then I realized,"Hey, dummy, you can say no to stuff like this! Stand up for yourself!" So I did. And I got a high from it.

Thankfully, that high has carried into this week. I've needed it. I have gotten an email and two texts asking me to do this other commercial. Quote "We really need you to do the ______ commercial, and we need you to get it to us by Wednesday. Thanks". That seemed slightly pushy to me. It didn't even seem to give me the option to decline. But I did anyways..over and over again. Who knows, maybe I'm just angry because they asked me if Payton was such a controlling husband that he wouldn't let me have my own email (we have a shared email).

Interning

I just finished my first week at FamilyLife as an intern in the web graphics development department. Whew, what a week! Already I feel like I have learned a lot and improved my skills. But I know that I have a lot more learning to do. The scary thing is, they've pretty much given me carte blanche as far as my projects are concerned. (I almost would prefer not to have that freedom since I feel slightly incompetent in the area of web design).

My two main projects are the website for the LifeReady Woman and the redesign of the MomLife blog. Since the web design team is made up of just men, they found that it would just make sense to have the only female work on those two projects. While I am female, I feel like that doesn't give me the knowledge to design the LifeReady Woman website. The other day, I was stuck on my design. The main problem was that I couldn't figure out how to design a website when I had no idea what the content would include. So I got the bright idea to visit the LifeReady Woman website to research it....then I realized, "Oh, it hasn't been created yet, because I'm creating it". That was just one of my bright ideas this week...out of many.

On another note, I really enjoy working at FamilyLife. It's an awesome environment, and I feel like any stupid things I do will be dealt with patiently by the people around me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will continue to be patient for the next 9 weeks!

Is it really an opportunity?

It never surprises me when someone asks me "Hey, would you like to design our team t-shirt?" or "Would you mind making a flyer for such and such event?" or "I saw a painting blah blah blah could you paint one like it?" While these projects never excite me like my own sketches and paintings, I am always happy to help out. It does frustrate me though, how most of this stuff is not good to put in my portfolio. Copying the idea of a painting isn't portfolio-worthy.

But this week I decided that I had come across a real opportunity. A small PR company asked me if I could help them with a campaign pitch for their client. They have four commercial concepts and they needed a sketch artist to lay out a storyboard for each of the commercials. I was thinking "Wow, this would be great for my portfolio!" and "Wow, I could maybe make some good connections!" I also thought that the process would be exciting and fun.

But after meeting with the PR company I realized how completely unexciting and unfun this process would be. Most of the time I don't mind doing free work for people. But I feel like I am being taken advantage of. In a three day period I somehow have to have four storyboards finished (that is a lot of drawing!)

Is this really an opportunity? Probably, but it's a pain right now. But if I am presented with the same opportunity later on, I think I will have to decline. This is too much work to do for free.

Summer Plans

After finishing off the Spring semester with a successful senior art show, I was very upbeat about the whole "starving artist" thing, and I was even confident that I could devote my time to producing artwork and maybe even bring in some money. I sold a couple of my paintings to random people and at my senior show I realized that people were actually interested in my work.

So I began to think, "What am I going to do this Summer? I know I need to get a job, and right now I'm feeling confident in my artwork, so why don't I just paint?" After talking to my painting instructor who told me that I should contact interior design companies, I had decided that was what I wanted to do. Now I'm four weeks into the Summer, and guess how many paintings I have done? None. Great plan, right?

Apparently I need to be held accountable if I am going to get any artwork done. Which is one of the reasons that I had majored in graphic design anyways. I have found that I am great in office settings. I work like a beaver...I think beavers work hard....But anyways, right as I was realizing that the whole painting thing wouldn't work out (atleast for this summer), I found out about a web graphics development internship at FamilyLife. I applied. I got it. I start June 7th and I can't wait!