For the first week of freedom I actually felt very anxious and somewhat depressed, as the transition from student to graduate felt abrupt. I was used to a very rigid, organized schedule that I lived by for 3 years: work, school, sleep, repeat. All of a sudden it was over and I had nothing to occupy my time and thoughts. But as the days went on I started to enjoy my newly relaxed schedule. I started reading for pleasure, spending quality time with my fiance, vacationing, and restarting a social life again. I’d also like to resurrect some prior creative outlets like painting and maybe discover some new ones that can be both fun and stress relieving.

Overall, I’m very happy I made it through the program with flying colors while working full-time but I’m even happier to have my life back.

Of course all of this is in response to low ad sales and competition from the web. Personally, I think it’s about time the printing industry stood up and became proactive in prolonging the life of their medium. It may even be 5 years too late. After all, what is the real message here? Don’t advertise on the web, advertise in print? We’re more immersive; we have more readership; we have a longer shelf life and pass along audience? The problem here is that most print magazines have online versions as well so are they insulting their own digital brand?

The real challenge for magazines is to get ahead of the digital curve and become relevant again by altering their medium to fit new digital innovations like the iPad. That I’d like to see.

It appears the creative industry has embraced this new approach as the “site” is a 2010 SXSW Interactive Award winner. But I wonder the reaction from their clients and other decision makers. Is it too innovative that traditionalists have a difficult time catching on? Has the new approach increased sales?  Awareness? I also wonder about accessibility, as there isn’t an option for closed captions or a link to download a transcript. Maybe something to think about for BooneOakley 2.0.

Click on the link below to take a 10 question survey on blood donation perceptions. All responses are anonymous and confidential. And please share this link with your friends/family/coworkers. My circle of 18-24 year olds is not as big as it once was!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BG2PRJ6

When I’m not focused on my countdown, I’m spending  some quality time with my new client, American Red Cross. Our campaign goal is to increase and retain blood donors between the ages of 18-24. This is a fun cause and audience to work with. I can see a lot of social media and PR tactics getting integrated into this campaign. So far I’ve done a ton of extensive research on the client, industry, competitors and external environment. Next week I start digging deeper on the target audience, which will include some primary research as well as secondary (an online survey and a focus group is required). I’m still overwhelmed and my “big idea” hasn’t come to me yet but I’m confident it will.

This week has flown by and I image the next 8 will as well. Here’s to hoping!

It hasn’t all been easy though. Working and going to school full-time requires a strict routine. I’ve had to give up a lot of things to get through this program. I’ve spent many weekend nights in working on papers. I’ve had to sacrifice lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons with my fiance to work on homework. We’ve had to push our wedding date till after graduation so I would have time to plan. Vacations and major errands had to be planned around school breaks. Burnout has been a huge obstacle for me and as I approach the 9 week mark, I find myself very much in “senioritis” mode.

In the end all the sacrifices will be worth it. I just need to get through the next 9 weeks…

WVU’s IMC Program

The Client: USAID

Project Description: The USAID had a unique problem on their hands. All of their 7 floors of office space looked exactly the same. They asked us to come up with a theme for each floor and provide signage that was both visually appealing and aid in way-finding.

Project Role: Creative strategy, floorplans, designs

The Client: Information Experts

Project Description: Each holiday season IE creates a unique, entertaining eCard that wishes our clients a Happy Holiday while promoting our services.

Click here to view the card.

Project Role: Project Manager, concept

Awards: Platinum MarCom Award, Summit Creative Award

The Client: The Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building

Project Description: The Arts & Industries building on the DC Mall was showcasing a collection of photographs of the Kennedy family prior to JFK’s Presidency. The banner, which sat on the Arts & Industries building lawn, promoted the exhibition.

Project Role: Designer

Unfortunately, while making more than $100 million in its opening weekend, Alice has been received with mixed reviews—and for good reason. The story take place 13 years after little Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole. It can be considered a sequel, considerably veering from the original Alice in Wonderland story written by Lewis Carrol. Most of the characters are still there but significant changes in the story can rattle those who were hoping for an adaptation closer to the original.

Of course, there’s also the issue that the movie is released through Disney studios so while the story has its dark moments, it is also juxtaposed with lighter, cheesier “Disney” moments clearly pandering to the children in the audience. It can seem disjointed at times for that reason.

On the positive side, the side I’m more concerned with, the acting and art direction truly lifts this movie up from what might be a huge disappointment for some Burton or Alice fans. We see some fantastic performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter who both excel at expressing the comic and dark aspects of their characters. Burton helps them along with some great visual tactics that reinforce their characters’ quirkiness—an enlarged head, wacky colorful hair, eye makeup that changes color depending on the character’s mood and some fantastic, gothic twists on the traditional Alice costumes.

The details are always where Burton succeeds in my mind and there are some great Burton-esque touches that make the film clearly his own. Gnarly tree branches, broken down fences, twisted asymmetrical buildings and scarred faces are some of the few elements that stood out to me as Burton’s style. He makes decrepit, fascinating and deformed, intriguing. Even down to a dog chain whose links were made of hearts, this guy really immerses the audience in a fantastical world that seems so real thanks to these creative details (and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the film is shown in 3D which only enhances the details). These are the touches i find inspirational and completely worth the time and money even if the story falls apart in some places. Which is why I’m looking forward to seeing what else Burton has up his sleeve.

Visit the official website for Alice in Wonderland

The Client: RefWorks-COS

Project Description: RefWorks-COS, leading provider of research tools, approached us to design a new corporate website that reflected their new visual brand.

Project Role: Wireframing, Design

The Client: Information Experts

Project Description: This brochure comes at time when IE was refreshing our visual brand with a more clean and compelling look while tackling our messaging as well.

Project Role: Project Manager

Awards: Gold MarCom Award, Silver Davey Award

The Client: Information Experts

Project Description: As part of IE’s annual holiday self-promotional campaign, they send out an entertaining ecard to their clients wishing them a Happy Holiday while promoting their services. This eCard in particular centered around a fat turkey losing weight to avoid being put on someone’s Thanksgiving dinner plate.

View the eCard

Project Role: Project Manager, concept

Awards: Platinum MarCom Award, Silver Davey Award, Communicator Award of Excellence

The Client: Department of Education

Project Description: The Department of Education approached us with the opportunity to redesign and update the content from their web-based training course, designed to educate Federal Student Aid administrators on financial aid concepts. The new course was not only a more contemporary and fresh representation of the FSA visual brand but also increased the usability and interactivity of the course.

Project Role: Creative Strategy, Design

Awards: Communicator Award of Distinction

The Client: SENSA Solutions

Project Description: SENSA Solutions, a management consulting firm, tasked us with designing a new website that was clean, contemporary and a reflection of their Human Capital expertise.

Project Role: Designer, Flash Designer

The Client: National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Project Description: NAM approached us to create a brochure to complement their Dream It! Do It! campaign which educates young adults about career opportunities in the manufacturing industry.

Project Role: Project Management, Art Director

Award: MarCom Award Honorable Mention

The Client: National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Project Description: NAM asked us to create a trio of ads for their Dream It! Do It! campaign which educates young adults about career opportunities in the manufacturing industry.

Project Role: Project Manager, Art Director

Awards: MarCom Honorable Mention

The Client: EPA

Project Description: The EPA asked us to create a number of posters to promote the Air Quality Index and educate the public on the “good” and “bad” aspects of the Ozone.

Project Role: Concept, Design

The Client: IRS

Project Description: The IRS’s Annual Workforce Summit was a high profile, week-long event for IRS emerging leaders. We were asked to design the event along with the logo and facilitate working groups focused on identifying and articulating needed human capital changes for the organization based on the Workforce of Tomorrow initiative.

Project Role: Designer

The Client: People Tactics

Project Description: HR consultancy People Tactics approached us to create a logo for their new small business.

Project Role: Designer

Awards: MarCom Award Honorable Mention

The Client: Crisis Partners International Logo

Project description: CPI, a new company specializing in emergency management, crisis management, and business continuity services, needed a new branded look and feel.

Project Role: Designer

Awards: Creativity Annual Award

The Client: BellSouth

Project Description: BellSouth asked us to conceptualize, design and animate over 250 ecards for their member-access home page at BellSouth.net.

Project Role: Concepts, designs

Awards: Gold MarCom Award, Silver Davey Award, Creativity Annual Award,

The Client: The World Bank, CommDev

Project Description: The World Bank asked us to come up with a logo for their new community development fund, CommDev.

Project Role: Designer

Awards: Silver Davey Award, Creativity Annual Award

The Client: Cognitive Technologies

Project Description: Cognitive Technologies, a consulting firm specializing in project management, collaborative processes, and organizational effectiveness tasked us to create a new website that reflected their high energy and passion for the work they do.

Project Role: Heuristic analysis, creative strategy, wireframing, design