8th blog-
Today I met with everyone that I would be assigned to work with. I was asked to make revisions to the master deck, it would be used by the marketing team. I guess you can say it was sort of a test run. The first thing I did when editing their deck was removing this hideous orange headline that went across every single slide. It was too bright, overwhelming and looked terrible on the screens when presenting. Next, was their general font that was assigned by Power Point. I changed it to a clean San serif font which looked elegant. I went into their logo and copied the exact colors, to later use on the headlines for each slide. I was doing my best to keep calm before the meeting began. My supervisor introduced me to everyone and I began my presentation. At first, there was no response, no movement. Everyone just seemed to be waiting for me and my next move. Until, one of the marketing members said “Stop, can you go back to the previous slide?” so, I did. I was bracing myself thinking, “oh man, there goes my leap to get away from their original slides. They aren’t going to like this.” “I love this slide,” says Mike and that’s when everyone started to agree and give their feedback. A wonderful feeling, “here’s a good start,” I thought.
Until next time, Shantel
9th blog post-
My supervisor has been away from the office for about four days now. Before she left, we went over a list of task that I could complete during the two weeks of her absence. One of the most important things I need to get done, is cleaning up all of their original decks. Which I later will be redesigning. There’s a lot of maintenance that I must get done before she comes back but, I’ve been also trying to complete the demands of the rest of the marketing team. It has become a little overwhelming trying to finish what they need within the hours they give me. They don’t really understand the time needed to redesign their jobs, which is typically understandable, most don’t. But, there’s no procedure in which these jobs get passed on to me. Because I am the only graphic designer and a one woman show, I figured this would occur. But, once my supervisor departed, the work demands began coming in large numbers. No one was communicating with each other. No one tried to figure out if the other person had already asked me for something similar. And of course, I take full responsibility on my own mistakes, for never speaking up and trying to put a stop to it. But, to be completely honest, I never wanted them to feel like I wasn’t capable of working at their speed or the speed of their company/ clients needs. So because of that, the work in my opinion was suffering, even though they felt the work was perfect.
Until next time, Shantel
10th blog-
Today my supervisor returned and although not everything was done from the list she left behind, she was very understanding. The first question she asked me was, “They didn’t leave you alone did they?” and we both laughed. She let me know that it was one of her concerns before she left. She was hoping I would find a way to work around it and she trusted my judgment to prioritize the work. I let her know that even though I was a little overwhelmed towards the beginning, I began to let the guys know that I couldn’t get to their jobs right away. I informed them of my availability and when I could have the work ready for them. And even though I feared knocking their timeline out of whack, that I just couldn’t get to all their demands in the time frame they needed. She agreed with my choices and seemed to be bothered with the way the rest of the team handled themselves. She felt bad that I had to deal with this situation while she was gone and told me that they knew the procedure and how things ran. She assured me that it would stop and that if anyone came directly to me to redirect them to her. I felt relieved.
Until next time, Shantel
11th blog post-
Today was a fulfilling day. When I arrived at my office, I was told that I would be taking a trip with part of the marketing team. Being the only designer at my company can be quite challenging. Especially when trying to get management to stray away from the typical data images and clichés. There are a lot of data company standards that must be shown in every presentation. Data charts and graphs are usually used in infographics. Majority of the time I have to design around a chart with tons of data and it can be challenging to make that look visually appealing. Today’s trip was to an office on Wall Street. The building and interior design was so clean and bright and everyone seemed to be pleasant. The man conducting the presentation was Wade, Chief Innovation Officer and a good friend to one of my supervisors. From the moment Wade began speaking he had our full attention. He began the presentation by showing off the view and the set up of the room. He then proceeded to demonstrating how the largest touch screen in the entire east coast operated. We were actually dumbfounded not about the touch screen but, the fact that this company had invested in this for their conference room. Wade jumped into his PowerPoint and explained what the company offers their clients. He showed us videos, told us about their application and then he stopped. He asked us if at any moment he mentioned his name or what his job title was? The answer was no. Never did he mention his name or the company’s name, he just provided us with what they did and how they helped their consumers. Of course this technique may not work for all presentations and clients but, the point was to express that you need to be different. You should always approach each presentation in a different format, keep the clients wondering what you will do next.
Until next time, Shantel
12th Blog-
Lately, I’ve been designing one page documents for the sales team. Since this is a start up company, a lot of key basic elements must be designed asap. I’ve created my own design style and approach for this company and the CEO seems to be liking my work. I work with a lot of negative space and san serif fonts to create my vision. I’ve designed partnerships announcements, proposals for potential clients, stationery’s and letterhead. Some specific reports I’m currently designing are our company’s pricing sheets and our surge report. Because this is a data based company, a lot of the documents are context heavy. My challenge is to use the information that is required to explain what is at hand. I’ll try to balanced out all the context with at least one clean image that illustrates what the document is about.
Until next time, Sha.
13th blog-
Today, I learned more about the company. To be more specific, I learned how they read their data and how they explain their results to their clients. Segments, are categories in which our data is divided.
For example, (Branded Data> B2B Demo> Professional Groups> Marketing Professional) each group is considered a segment. So, the difference between us and other companies is that we use ABM (Account Based Marketing) to generate revenue. We use Activate ABM powered by intent data that unifies your brand in demand initiatives. Intent data reveals who is researching what and when. Listening to intent signals tells when prospects are in market for your products. By harnessing this data, we reach both the accounts you already know plus those you don’t yet know. Once we identify those accounts, Intent allows you to target not only the decision makers in the right department but all the influencers who have a say in the process.
Additionally, Intent reveals precisely what topics are most important to your prospects. Allowing you, to serve exactly the right message to the right people at the right time.
Your brand and demand campaign can be better than your competitors with Active ABM. You can target the right accounts when they’re exhibiting the most propensity to buy and sometimes that’s all it takes.
Until next time, Sha.
14th Blog-
Today, I had a meeting with my supervisor about a new project that I’ll be designing this week. I am to redesign our Co-Op page. The current page isn’t up due to the fact that my CEO and supervisor aren’t too happy with the way it looks. During our meeting, she told me what needs to remain the same: the border (which matches all the rest of the site’s pages), the font and of course the content. Most of the site’s design was clean and used a lot of negative spaces just like I used for the one page documents. I was given three quotes that were going to be placed in a slide under the banner. I decided to design the quote using the company colors and pictures of surfboards. Surfboards have become a part of the company brand due to the name meaning large waves. I created a mockup and handed it over to my supervisor who then passed it off to our coder. The finalize page will be completed and reviewed next week. I’m very excited to see the end results.
Until next time, Sha.
15th Blog-
I’m currently still working at my location. It seems like a great place to be and it has to do with brand identity, which is what I’m interested in proceeding. It’s a great environment and everyone already treats me like a part of the team. This week we were working on the holiday packages that will be mailed to clients and partners as well as, our customized holiday cards. My new task is huge for my company and myself. My CEO and supervisor are going on a world tour and they will be using my designs to land new contracts with new companies. I’m definitely beginning to feel the heat. Everyone is moving at a fast pace and we’re all playing catch up. We have a week and three days to finalize a presentation, video and collect recent accurate data from our sister company. This time around I’m working with the company’s CEO, Senior Accountant, Programmatic Director and Head of Marketing. There will be a lot of opinions and suggestions on how to complete this task and it could potentially be hard to manage but, I believe I know how to stay afloat. It’s pretty simple, our CEO is the client he’s leading this tour, his call. I would like to see this all through and land a permanent position with this company. We’ll see! Fingers crossed.
Have a good break, Sha.
