I started my internship on Tuesday February 19th at Grip Limited. If you asked me if I was nervous my response would have been to throw up on the spot, I did in fact throw up that morning. And I don't think my heart has ever pumped that much blood through my body. I was shaking and borderline having a panic attack. That's just the marvellous wonders of being me, being nervous is just part of my nature. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely more excited than anything. Even though I felt confident, my mind was set on thinking : "Something is going to go horribly, horribly wrong." Instead, I just chugged the rest of my coffee and walked through the doors of Grip Limited into this orange wonderland.
Inside I was greeted by HR, a quick tour of the office showed me where I would be spending most of my time: My desk, and the spot next to the coffee maker. While still walking around, there wasn't very many people in the office (9:30 on the day after a holiday). But the people that were there had their faces glued to their computer screen, which made sense. So although I didn't get to meet very many people. My computer was set up and I was ready to rock well before Lunch time, where I was told I'll be working with multiple people on different clients. I was told to check Grip's 411 and directory to get a better feel on the place. However, after lunch is when things started to pick up. I had a meeting with HR to sign my emergency contact form. While in that meeting I was asked if I could make some welcome banners for the School's coming into Grip on Thursday (today). I jumped on the opportunity to do something! As I head back for my desk I hear my name being called into a meeting by the Creative Director. He was listening to the account team brief him on the next steps that were needed to be taken. About 45 minutes later, I also have a brainstorming project to work on due Thursday as well. The posters lasted me until the end of the day and brainstorming was for Wednesday. It was a roller coaster of a first day. You think that you have nothing to do and within the course of 10 minutes, I have two new projects on the go. As far as first days go it was incredible, I have to keep working hard and showing my worth here. Maybe one day I'll be working and living in Toronto, cutting that abysmal commuting time. Oh well, I guess that's just a part of #InternLife
0 Comments
Lego decided they would cater to a little boy and replace a toy after he lost it at a store. The incident started when the boy’s father told him not to take the toy with them when they went out that day. They boy obviously ignored the request and brought it anyways, losing it before he got home. The father, not wanting to pay for a replacement, told the kid to email Lego and ask for the replacement. This wasn’t too long after Christmas, so Lego decided to send him a [better version] replacement and an extra villain to go along with it. The media quickly got a hold of this and this kid with his lost Lego were being talked about on radio stations, blogs and Twitter.
I’d say this story shows that Lego cares about its current customers, if they’re loyal to the brand they’ll be taken care of. It also shows future and past customers what they’re missing out on, would their toy supplier replace their child’s toy? This story might be enough to get old customers to back Lego. It also puts a little bit of stress on the competitors, customers of their brand will wonder if they would do the same if they got the e-mail. Shareholders will be touched by the story, and would be happy to see how many people are praising Lego for this stunt. It doesn’t really affect retailers, it’s not like Lego is handing out replacements willy-nilly, so the fact they they’re not getting money for a replacement piece doesn’t really hurt them. No matter whom the story affected, the media was a big part of spreading it around. There were a number of sites this story was featured on, including: Yahoo.com, Frroll.com, CBC.com and, of course, Twitter. The first 3 websites just tell the story from the eyes of a writer, they might have a comment section but it’s probably not used very often. The biggest consumer interaction is on Twitter, they may have read the story on the other sites, but they all come together on one site to talk about it together. The kid who wrote the letter even has his own Twitter account well before this all even went down, showing that their consumers are out there waiting to tweet and talk about their product. The kid states that he bought the Lego package with his Christmas money, didn't follow his dads advice, lost the toy anyways and he was still given a replacement toy from Lego. Even though that's not the best way to teach a kid a lesson, I hope he'll never take something for granted ever again. That is, if it's how it went down. Like I said, the boy has his own Twitter account but it's clearly not written from the mind or hands of a 7 year old. I feel like he got the toy for Christmas, took it to the store, lost it and begged his dad for a replacement. The dad, who already dropped 80 bucks on the toy itself, didn't want to go buy a replacement and wrote the email for the kid (like he does with the Twitter). But that's just me digging into conspiracies and I wont go there. -Curt This week was a huge week for me, because I started it off with signing a contract. After showing my book around I quickly got picked up by Grip Limited. Which is exciting for me, this is an agency that was on my dream list of places to intern. I'm pretty nervous to make the transition from the school atmosphere, to the real world agency. I'm ready to power up my mind and show off my creativity.
I am incredibly proud of myself, the work that I've done over the last 3 years have lead to this moment. I have faith in myself as an art director and I can't wait to learn so much from Grip. This is going to be an experience that changes me forever. Taking the Go Train 5 or more times a week seems daunting, but words can't even describe how excited I am to start here. I do dream of living in Toronto one day, but I'm more than happy to take the Go Train while I'm and intern. It's cheaper this way. It is a scary experience, it's like the first day of school, only 100 times more intimidating. People know what they're doing, and I fear of getting in the way of someone. I'll just be as friendly and hard-working as I can be. Get ready Grip, I may have a bit to learn, but I'm ready to show you what I'm made out of. Let's do some great things together :D - Curtis I've been at Mohawk College for 3 years now, learning all about Advertising and the way it fits into our daily lives. A quick look at my portfolio will show you ideas that I, and a few class mates, have thought up of to promote products that were given to us by our professors. We've learnt a bunch of tips and tricks to help us get to the idea, but it certainly comes at different times. Even in second year, an idea could come faster than one in your third year. Making is hard to believe I've "learnt" anything about being creative.
Trust me, trying to get the hang of all the Adobe products by yourself is not an easy task, which is definitely something I've learnt from my professors. It's a whole different story when you talk about ideas, I wouldn't say that I have this newfound knowledge from being at College. However it's allowed me to try to think of different ways to promote something and being open to talk to different people and going to different places. Just doing these things get your creative juices flowing. Some people are born creative, and there are even some bit by the creative bug. Which leads me into believing that Creativity isn't taught, but caught. If you read a lot of books your imagination will take off, and an idea can come from anywhere. Even just being around creative people and doing things that'll get your ideas flowing will form great ideas. Talk to people until they're annoyed of you or read a book until you fall asleep. If you want to be creative, don't just expect to learn it from someone, you're going to want to have it. I've recently come alone a few people who like do to their whole creative process on their computer. As soon as the brief comes in, they pull out their computers and start typing down ideas. I ditch the backpack and laptop for a pen and a notebook. It makes for a better ride on the bus for starters. Secondly I find it's better for keeping ideas, I know plenty of computer users that can't find a file. I have all my notebooks on me at all times.
While having a computer would be great for on-the-go editing, I find that when most people write with a computer they will erase ideas they don't like. Losing it forever, you won't remember it, trust me. I also find when you're in a WiFi hotspot, which is everywhere now, they will easily be distracted by the internet. Youtube will play, stumbles will be clicked, and reddits will be read. Notebooks are not WiFi capable and they're a lot smaller then your average laptop. I can't pull up my email, or edit a photoshop file. But maybe I like it this way. I can still write down all my ideas, where they stay in there forever. If i flip back, an idea can just leap from the page. If you've ever lost an idea notebook, it's almost as bad as losing your laptop. Here is my little collection that's quickly growing. (I used paper and binders first year, ew) So there's only 5 weeks of school left before we have to venture out into the world and look for our own internships. It's scary, showing your book to creative directors and having them look at what you've tried to perfect over the last 3 years. I've found that showing my book has only been a good experience, I get great feedback so I can take my book back home and start tweaking my book.
With 5 weeks left I'm left with a number of things to do for different clients and different classes. The One Show brief is starting to come together, as well as the stop motion video. These aren't due until the end of the month, so they're on the back burners until all the weekly stuff is done. I love having this much on my plate though, it always keeps me company when I'm home alone, which is often. All of the work will be worth it at the end of these 5 weeks. Hopefully I'll have more portfolio pieces to show and maybe it'll be enough to attract some creative directors into taking on a new hardworking intern. At school I've won 3 student awards and over the past 5 years i've accumulated over 4 million YouTube views (and I've also been paid by Google). But we can talk about that when we meet. ;) -Curt I, Curtis Denomme, will tell you about what work an Advertising student has to go through. I'll be posting weekly, describing a certain project I'm woking on, and once it's complete I'll post the results as a different blog post.
This first week I'm working on the brief for "The One Show" awards. We have been brainstorming on the best way to promote fundraising for Pencils of Promise. A charity that builds schools in third world countries. We have a good start, but want to push to cover all mediums. We'll then decide which one to execute. I've also started working on a new project with a different team. I've volunteered my time to help them produce a video for The Hamilton Toy Museum. It's going to be a stop motion style video, the toys will be constructing their logo out of lego. We predict it'll take a bit of time. However, we are set up and ready to start shooting. Here are some pictures of the set up: |
Curtis DenommeWriting weekly blogs diving into my current student projects. ArchivesCategories |