Look Ma, I did it!

During an interview you want to put your best foot forward, sometimes that can cause issues later on when you get the job. Case and point, when asked if I had any web experience I said yes, a bit, not realizing that the eblasts they wanted me to design were quite different than the websites I had experience with.

While this could have gone badly, my enthusiasm and willingness to learn saved me and my employer decided to send me to web school. Most of my classmates were at a different (I'm not sure they knew how to use computers) level than I was so I found the course a bit slow. I also found that I needed to put my web skills to use before I had a chance to brush them up. I MacGyver-ed my way out of it and came up with the eblast below. In addition to this custom eblast I also improved upon the template they had for monthly blasts and designed a template in Mail Chimp for my co-workers to use on a weekly basis.

Keep on Truckin'

If feels like I'm flying through the list of projects I wanted to talk about, luckily my new position at Toronto Life is providing me with lots to share. Today I submitted a couple of great advertorials for the June issue, by the time it comes out I will hopefully have made it through the rest of my past projects and be able to feature something more current.

In the meantime, I will show off a high impact collateral I did for Weddingbells. This piece was unusual as most sales oriented collaterals are sent through email as pdfs or are single page print outs that we print in house. This collateral was a small eight page booklet that our sales representatives used to pitch to some of their most important clients. I was so excited when they decided to have a small number professionally printed to include in sales packages. Below are some shots of the booklet.

Childhood Memories

I remember having one of the Little Tikes plastic cars (the ones you drove around Flintstones style) when I was a kid, I also remember trying to fit into one when I was much too tall. The car then came into my life a third time when, as an intern, I did an illustration of the car for promotional materials for Canadian Family's birthday party. Below is the classic red car, a couple of the different items it was included on, as well as a camera I illustrated for the photo release signage at the event.

Hoping for the Best

One of the most important qualities of a good intern is to be accommodating, never say no just figure things out. One of my most challenging projects as an intern was to create a video for FASHION Magazine, they were a sponsor of the Calgary Film Festival and needed a short video to play at the start along with videos from the other sponsors.

I had learned the basics of Flash in high school and was re-taught again in college but my design background was almost 100% print and I had only made one multimedia piece in college. While this made me nervous, together with my boss I came up an idea that was fairly easy to execute in Flash and that tied strongly to the brand. I'm sure videographers and animators thought it was rudimentary but I was proud to have completed a project so different than what I was used to.

I attempted to upload the video but no longer have the program to convert it to a compatible file, instead here are a number of screen shots, you get the idea.

 

Intern Win

About a year and a half ago I interned for St. Joseph Media. When I first went for the interview I was worried I wouldn't be well suited for the role, but when I found out I would be assisting with the marketing for not only FASHION Magazine but also Canadian Family and Weddingbells I thought it would be a good fit. I worked full time hours as an intern for the next three months and was really happy that I came away from the internship with not only experience, but also a couple new things for my portfolio. Below is the brochure I did for Pacific Centre Mall in Vancouver. The typographic treatments and layout mimic FASHION and the content showcases items you can purchase at the mall.

Arts and Crafts

I love when design projects involve me making rough mocks out of paper. Whether it be a new folding technique, a hand sewn binding or a dieline, I love to try things out to see if they work as well in reality as they do in my head. For my redesigned Wite-Out package I was vehemently against using a clamshell package so I came up with a unique box that would make the Wite-Out easier to access and to store for the future. Additionally I streamlined the graphics and used a clever window shape to reinforce the shape of the product.

The Clincher

Through a great reference I was told about the opening for my new job. After speaking to others I knew at the company I found out I had already received a couple of great recommendations from my mentors when I interned there. While I am sure this helped, I also had the opportunity to show my portfolio. After a number of typical questions I was asked to show one of my best pieces, here it is, the clincher!

Fitting

I found it fitting that I read Mark Busse's article Travel IS School (about the importance of traveling for creative professionals) the same day I had planned to write about my magazine Arriba. When I was initially assigned this project I wanted to do a women's interest or knitting magazine. After some thought I realized that both had a much smaller audience and that a travel magazine would be a better piece for my portfolio. 

I took the majority of the photos for the magazine while I was on holidays in Barcelona and the Northern coast of Spain. The trip was amazing, a perfect mix of cultural attractions in Barcelona and Bilbao along with beautiful scenery during my hike along the coast. I am proud of the magazine from a design standpoint but I cherish it more for the memories it captures both through the photos I took and the articles I wrote about my trip for the magazine.