The first week was not as scary as I thought!

Being the new guy was something that was on my mind, especially coming in as the Junior Graphic Designer intern. With no background in real estate I was sightly worried about not understanding the company’s motto. That was until I met Marco Santiago, The CSO (Chief Security Officer) who immediately made me feel like an asset to the company.

Within the first week I was sitting in the board meetings, Skype conference calls, and working close with the Senior Copy Writer and Communications Director on creating original content.

Marcos assigned a 48 hour task to work with existing copy (text) that they provided, creating an “agent to agent” ad to encourage real estate agents to apply for jobs at Rapid Reality. Over that time I came up with two campaigns, with two executions each. I provided overall four mock-ups that were received very highly. By the time I got to the office, I noticed the ads I made were already on the screen in the conference room. My boss was pleased, to say the least. I don’t know why I was so nervous!

That day we met in the conference room to discuss these mock-ups further; what worked and what didn’t. We talked about our social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, and how we could improve them. During that process  we looked at examples of our competitors and how they execute their message. After that we broke into our team-brainstorming board where we all share our thoughts and go over marketing tactics.  Later that day the team and I joined in on a conference call discussing deadlines and website wireframe design with our tech team.

During that week, the team and I met at least over 15 hours to discuss the progress of the re-branding, reviewing design ideas and what still needs development. My motivation along with their encouragement kept me driven and focused.

I have been given the opportunity to be part of the Rapid Reality team as the Junior Graphic Design Intern.

After searching for a job in the creative field, I was contacted by Rapid Reality corporate office located in Brooklyn to come in for an interview. During my interview I could tell they were interested in my work, most of their questions were based off pass and present work shown in my portfolio. I was offered the job an hour later, learning that my position would included helping re-brand the corporate identity and identifying ways to improve the attraction of a younger demographic.

My journey with Rapid Reality started as a rush. They are known as New York City’s largest rental-based real estate brokerage, and the first rental brokerage in New York to utilize a business franchise model. The company was founded as a real estate agency in 1998 by Anthony Lolli. In 1998 Lolii opened the first Rapid Reality in Park Slope Brooklyn, the first Rapid Reality franchise opened in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2009. The company has grown to 65 locations state wide and is continuing to expand across the US. They are recognized for using an assembly line of specialists for different stages of the rental process.

In 2012, Rapid Reality was named one of the city’s best firms by real estate newspaper, The Real Deal. The company was then recognized with Inc. Magazine’s 2012 Inc 5000 Award. In 2013, they were given the Franchisee Satisfaction Award by The Franchise Business Review.

I’m excited to start this next chapter and get my foot in the door in the world of graphic design x real estate. I look forward to seeing where this road takes me.