The second week at Savoir Beds was spent finishing the headboard tear sheets and then beginning to create the layout for the mattresses, box springs and toppers. These pieces have more information about the construction and materials, including an itemized list of each ingredient.

The tear sheets for the mattresses took the most time and effort, finding creative ways to share the information without overwhelming the audience.  I found these to be a bit more difficult since there is a lot more written copy than imagery.  I had to find a way to efficiently display the product information in a clean and tasteful way.

I made several rough drafts and presented each option with the manager and sales team. We reviewed each layout and different styles, where I took notes on what needed to be fixed or changed. From there I continued to work on the improvements, making several edits and options to present again the following week.

I assisted with visiting the competing showrooms in the neighborhood for what’s called ‘comp sets.’ The goal was to do comparable research on their product, collecting any brochures, price lists, and collateral. I went to two to three different showrooms of their competitors and brought back all the information I could collect.  It was interesting to actually be involved in this process and realizing the necessary steps to know your industry and your competitors.

So far I’ve really been enjoying this experience learning how to do graphic design work for a luxury showroom. I am excited to be a part of creating such important work for the entire US market.

Seven blocks north of the Frank Loyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, and along west of the Hudson River lies the Whitney Museum.  It was founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Whitney. The museums art focuses on the 20th and 21st century. There is a collection of more then 21,000 pieces of arts, a combination of painting, sculptures, drawings, prints, photography, films, videos, and artifacts of new media as well. The Whitney showcases over 3,000 artists and places; a particular emphasis on exhibiting the work of living artists for its collection, while also maintaining an extensive permanent collection containing many important pieces from the first half of the last century.

One of the artists who caught my attention during my visit to the exhibitions was Richard Avedon. Richard’s art piece titled, “Who has a better right to oppose the war” is a powerful anti war poster of a Vietnam war veteran. The poster was created in 1969 and the medium used was offset lithograph. The color pallet used within the poster are of high hue saturation of red, blue, and white. The colors used give an emotional, patriotic  touch.

Besides Rich Avedon’s artwork, the Whitney Museum has a beautiful view from the rooftop to enjoy the sunset. With plenty to see of the six floors of exhibitions to explore and be inspired by. The Whitney Museum is definitely a great way to spend the weekend. 

This official app acts as a digital swatch book, including over 13,000 colors from the Pantone Plus Series and more. This app can be use to match hues from photos, generate harmonious color palettes and then share them. You can also sync them with your design software programs of choice.

I found Pantone studio to be a useful app in many ways. For example, Pantone makes choosing colors less complicated when making decisions and has useful suggestions on complementary colors. Recently, I created stencils for a poster collage of ten pieces. Using Pantone studio, I was able to find a successful complementary color palette. Having access to an application such as Pantone Studio is a big time saver and a useful tool source to have.

Pantone offers designers, brands and consumers a variety of supports in all color conscious industries. Such as textiles, apparel, beauty, interiors, architectural and industrial design. Over 10,000 color standards across multiple materials including printing, textiles, plastics, pigments, and coatings. The Pantone studio app is available for digital smartphone IOS and Android which can be integrated with your workflow of tools.

Assembly is an app that is helps to create icons, logos and scenes using a building block approach to design. Available on iPhone and iPad, Assembly earned its place in the best iPhone apps list by enabling users to easily create endless smart vector images without having to sit at a computer. being able to stay mobile and expand your creative imagination whereever you travel.

Rather than wasting precious time on creating your own vector shapes, you can choose out of Assembly’s library of over 180 basic shapes that you can then fit together to make larger designs, either over a plain backdrop or on top of a background image. I find this feature to be really helpful when working on project with limited time and a tight deadline.

It’s a building-block approach to design that might sound a little simplistic, but it’s been put together intelligently and with just enough tools to enable you to craft detailed images in minutes – perfect for creating designs when you’re on the move. As a young designer, I have to say this tool and many like it are worth exploring. Assembly is a free app in the App Store and worth the time if you are someone who wants to expand their toolbox.

Creativity doesn’t always come as a convenience, which is why you have to go out of the way to find the imagination and capture it in the moment. Lucky “there is an app for that,” and it is called Storyist, a word processor that is easy to use on desktop or mobile device.

Storyist is a writing platform that isn’t limited by what operating system it is used with. Whether you’re sitting at your desk or in a seat on the bus, you can pull up Storyist and get to work on whatever has sparked your creativity. It’s a fully-featured word processor that comes complete with templates to help you put together your writing process, whether you’re crafting a novel, screenplay, or just typing out some notes that you want to remember.

Speaking for myself, Storyist has helped me keep my thoughts organized and manage my time better. As a creative person, I find my ideas come to me at any given time, and Storyist allows me to travel freely and write my notes while I am on-the-go. If there is room to add a tool to your phone, this should be the one. For anyone who works on the run, this app is helpful in the long run.

This past November, the New York City of technology college had their monthly Meet The Pro event. The event was hosted by the Art Design Club. The featured guests were creative designers and art directors in the profession, staring Andrew Berardi (art director), Chris Phillips (copywriter), Kent Thacker (program creator), Emely Perez (designer) and Mo Osunbor (art director). Each of these guests shared interesting tips on how to improve your work ethic and performance. Both Andrew Berardi and Mo Osunbor shared their work experience at J. Walter Thompson, which left a nice impression about the company on me. J. Walter Thompson is the world’s best-known marketing communications brand. Headquartered in New York, J. Walter Thompson is a global network with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries, employing over 12,000 marketing professionals.

Mo Osunbor, shared how he gets inspired as an art director. When he is not working, he’s teaching, and attending book club. During his speech, Mo explained how he believes creativity needs an enemy, just as with a negative there is a positive. According to his beliefs, it is up to the designer to dig deeper into the research and creative process to rise above the challenges.

Andrew Berard shared his past work experience. Andrew has worked in the industry for some time and has made great connections over the years. He’s worked on projects with PUMA and many other well-established brands, but PUMA was the one I found most interesting. Andrew shared some tips on how to expand your craft as a designer by giving yourself tactics and goals, and also building a friendly relationship among your employees.

This month’s “Meet The Pros” event was worth the time. It was a full house of guests that shared their creative thinking and advice, giving the audience what they wanted as young future designers, which was inspiration and guidance. I would recommend this event to anyone who is looking for growth in knowledge about working in the creative work place. It definitely helped me understand more about myself and how I would like to improve my work ethic and time management.

My first day at the New York Uptown showroom started with an introduction to the team and the brand, learning about the craftsmanship and the different bed models they create. Savoir Beds makes completely bespoke beds, each one made by hand. They began commissioning beds for the Savoy Hotel in London in 1905. I even learned that Winston Churchill used to own a Savoir mattress after staying at the Savoy Hotel. I found their history really interesting and inspiring. I loved learning about how they began and how they got to be the international luxury company they are today.

I came on as the Graphic Design intern, where I would be helping the New York branch create printed collateral and specification sheets for their beds. I learned that a large portion of their business comes from interior designers, and they needed to create a simpler way of sharing information on each of the beds. There are four models of each bed set and three different toppers. They also have over twenty different headboard styles.

The company has a very specific brand identity that I had to learn about in order to understand the aesthetic of the graphic work I’d have to create. In the interior design and furniture industry, they use “tear sheets” or “specification sheets” to show the technical details of the product, sometimes providing the measurements and any other components. My job would be to find a way to get all of this information on a one-page PDF, to share with the designers and clients.

I was given photos and the written copy to add to these spec sheets, and had general information from the website that I could work off of as well. My first assignment for the day was to research other high-end furniture companies to get an understanding of different specification sheets and the different formats. From there I had to start gathering the information, both the written copy and the high-res photos, and started creating several layouts to work with. I was directed to start with a few headboard styles, to propose to the main office in London.

The first week at Savoir Beds was a completely different experience from my previous internships. The work environment is quiet and really relaxed. The company cares a lot about the employee’s well-being and wants for a healthy work-life balance. It’s been an exciting experience so far and I can tell that I will learn a lot about understanding company branding.

In this age of technology, creativity has taken old trends and merged them into new ones. As young creative designers begin to find themselves within their own talent, more experienced professionals are interested in progressing their advanced skill sets. Nowadays, creativity means different things to different people. some would like to think of smart devices such as smart phones or tablets to be driven toward consumption rather than creativity. However, with the development of new apps, it has lead to experimenting with a wider range of tools and imagination. Programs such as Adobe have pushed software development in the direction of blending both imagination and creativity, and making them a reality; whether it’s for the professional field or personal use. Today these programs are available on these smart phones and tablets. Speaking from experience, finding creative tools made for on-the-go travels are great for expanding in different platforms. It helped change daily scenery sites, into creative ideas for vector images just from my phone.

Being able to walk out of the office while staying connected through a hand-held device is a plus when dealing with a tight deadline, or even for a presentation. With applications such as “Adobe Capture” it makes it possible to make edits from your smart device on-the-go while streaming the files back and forth.

Week Two

As I continue into the second week at Rapid Realty, there was rush of information that felt at first overwhelming. Of course, I knew only over time I would get the hang of things. During my hours at work I would do my best to understand quickly and execute successfully. Working for a real-estate franchise is a new experience for me and quite confusing, speaking for myself.

That said, it didn’t stop the team and I from uniting and brainstorming on creating a campaign copy write for their social media ads. This weeks focus was on working with the copy writer, marketing, and tech teams on building the upcoming rebrand for Rapid Realty.

The next step was to visit some the offices located in the area of the headquarters. The reasoning being so we could get a sense of what it was like to be a realtor in the field. In order to run ad campaigns to target new agents to join Rapid Realty, we had to begin to understand who we need to target and how. We began to review how many employees are in a office, what the pay structure would be, how do the agents show the homes, and what they are receiving in regards to training.

As the new addition to Rapid Realty, it was important to understand the culture of Rapid Realty and how they intend on expanding their targeted audience. To help get a sense for the company, I asked for the company’s current brand identity and any printed collateral. I wanted to learn more about their business motto, mission statements, new employee packages, previous advertisements, social media, and so on. I find this helpful because it gives a sense of direction and helps me to understand what they are looking to change or improve.

After a long couple days of meetings, we finalized some copy write for ad campaign ideas that target real estate agents in joining the team at RR. Focusing on what social media platforms relate to specific demographics, we narrowed down where our specific ads will be. From there I spent time in the office and at home on these rebranding campaigns, creating about two-three different options for each ad.

After another week of nerves I left week two feeling confident in my contributions to the rebrand for Rapid Realty.

This week I attended the “Meet the Pros” event hosted by New York City College of Technology City Tech and the Department of the Art Design Club.

What an experience I had meeting with other young designers looking to build their networking connections! Learning a few pointers from professionals in the real work place was something to look forward to.

The host of the night was Ethan McCarty, the Global Head of Employee and Innovation Communications at Bloomberg. McCarty and his team focus on the growth in communication and team research.

There are multiple communication teams globally, each research the popular trends for all areas of the business. McCarty shared interesting notes on building work ethics and fine tuning skills sets. He explained what is of importance in a work place and how communication design plays a crucial role in the company.

During his speech, McCarty shared the “Cooperate Platform to Build Belief in Bloomberg.” Demonstrating the importance of the teams strategy, he shared the breakdown on how they collect their data research. Mostly divided by different social media outlets, blogs, newsletters, digital signage and so on, each area is split up between teams.

Seeing how much research and effort the company puts into the success of their company, and their employees, I think being a part of the Bloomberg team would be an incredible company to be a part of.

I can’t wait for the next Meet the Pros event and meeting other professionals in the field.