Categories
Better Advertising. Better World. SMU Creative TAI Alumni

TAI Alumna Spotlight: Jena Jessen, Designer for the Dallas Mavericks

Jena Jessen (’12) had a long-time dream realized when she was hired as a designer for the Dallas Mavericks in June. In her position, Jessen is responsible for creating graphics, collateral, presentations, infographics and logos for the team. With an average home game attendance of 20,000, and more than 65 million fans internationally, designing for the Mavericks is no small job.

Mavs_International_Infographic_Landscape
TAI alumna, Jena Jessen (’12), designs infographics, logos and other collateral for the Dallas Mavericks.

Jessen graduated from SMU’s Temerlin Advertising Institute (TAI) with a BA in Advertising in December 2012. During her time in TAI’s creative advertising program, she learned several valuable lessons that she has carried with her during her career:

  1. Keep pushing your work further until it is great
  2. Condition your craft
  3. Have a great portfolio site

Under the leadership of the TAI creative faculty, Jessen learned how to “push through the junk until [she] landed at a great idea.” She also learned that conditioning and self-discipline are critical to being successful in the industry. Jessen notes that conditioning is different from motivation, which is fleeting. Like the athletes she now designs for, Jessen conditions her craft through both work and freelance projects to make sure she is staying engaged in the discipline and growing as a professional. Having a great portfolio hosting platform to showcase work is helpful as well. Jessen recommends Cargo Collective, which she was introduced to at TAI.

Jena & DirkJessen’s journey to Victory Park has included stops at Dallas agencies such as MEplusYOU, where she interned, and Speck Communications, where she served as a full time Art Director. She credits her time with these agencies, as well as the knowledge and skills she learned at the Temerlin Advertising Institute, to her landing the position with the Mavericks.

Jessen also serves as the Creative Chair for Ad2Dallas, an affiliate of AAF Dallas, whose mission is to strengthen the skills and connections of Dallas advertising, marketing and public relations professionals age 32 years and younger. For more information on Ad2Dallas, including upcoming events, visit: http://aafdallas.org/ad2dallas/.

Categories
Masters in Advertising Program SMU Creative

SMU Advertising Students are “Happy” in (and out of) class!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/TIXGQryeiaA[/youtube]

SMU’s Spring 2014 Intro to Creativity class comes together to create a Happy Video inspired by Pharrell Williams.

The Temerlin Advertising Institute class explores creativity and the creative thinker’s role in shaping the culture in advertising. The class is part of the new minor and major in advertising as well as part of the minor in graphic design.

An advanced course on Creative Problem Solving is also offered as part of the M.A. program at the Institute.

Thanks to Zoë Filutowski!

Categories
Awards and Projects SMU Creative Undergraduate Students

Rethinking Pink: TAI Students Place Fourth Overall, Win Best Promotional Strategy for Client Mary Kay at District National Student Advertising Competition

2014 SMU NSAC AwardThe National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team from SMU competed in the American Advertising Federation (AAF) District 10 regional competition in Austin, Texas on April 17. They placed fourth overall and took home the Best Promotional Strategy trophy in what turned out to be a pressure filled, highly competitive event. The SMU NASC team, taught by Brice Campbell, Executive-in-Residence, and Willie Baronet, Visiting Executive-in-Residence, has been hard at work since the beginning of the Spring 2014 semester when they began doing preliminary research and strategy development for Mary Kay, this year’s national client. Using the tagline #RETHINKPINK, the team created a cohesive and memorable campaign designed to change the perception of Mary Kay among young women 18-25 years old. Students focused their efforts in Account Management, Account Planning, Traditional and Social Media, Research, Promotions, Public, and Creative (including casting and photographing the women featured in the ads), producing a comprehensive campaign executed solely by them.

2014 RethinkPink Ad designed by NSAC Creative Team
2014 RethinkPink Ad designed by NSAC Creative Team

Willie Baronet reflected on the experience, stating, “as a first time faculty in this competition I was overwhelmed by the amount of work required of the students. And impressed by the opportunities they had to present in front of industry leaders, as well as members of the Mary Kay marketing team.” All members of the 2014 SMU NSAC team are pursuing a BA in Advertising from the Temerlin Advertising Institute (TAI). Advertising majors are required to complete ADV 4399 Advertising Campaigns as part of their curriculum. This class combines major advertising theories with practice, allowing students to develop and present an advertising campaign to a real client based on current advertising challenges that the client is facing. Students that take Advertising Campaigns during the Spring semester have the opportunity to participate in the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). Recent NSAC clients include Glidden Paint (2013) and JCPenney (2012).

Please join the Temerlin Advertising Institute (TAI) in congratulating this year’s SMU NSAC team on their outstanding work and accomplishments!

2014 SMU NSAC Team Members and Faculty
2014 SMU NSAC Team Members and Faculty

Members of the 2014 SMU NSAC team are: (Students) Amelia Ambrose, Katie Bernet, Anne-Marie Clegg, Rachel Delesk, Andrew Fennessy, Kelly Gilliland, Elizabeth Glander, Lauren Goddard, John Ross Gramentine, Ashley Gross, Emily Jedlicka, Hillary Johnson, Jaimmy Koroma, Bernabe Maldonado, Alexandra Nowlin, Margot O’Daniel, Morgan O’Hare, Mary Olson, Ari Passy, Morgan Saxer, Dustin Weil, (and Faculty) Brice Campbell, Executive-in-Residence, and Willie Baronet, Visiting Executive-in-Residence.

Categories
Community Outreach SMU Creative Uncategorized

Creative Students Invited to Participate in National “Bus” Tour at the Dallas Art Fair

SMU_5
Custom Art Work on the bus by SMU Students

Leah Foster, a friend of TAI Visiting Executive-in-Residence Willie Baronet, started a National Bus Tour this past weekend at the Dallas Art Fair and several students in Baronet’s Introduction to Creativity class showed up to participate. Using paint, glitter, paper and all the many materials that Willie brought, the students got to work in redecorating the bus.

Leah Foster is an artist and currently a graduate student at School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, NY. She views art as a tool to bring positive change in the world. She launched this bus tour with a doctor from Botswana in an effort to raise money to start a children’s hospital. This tour is a way for the Leah and her collaborative partner Una Mulale to meet people and begin a conversation about their  approach to healthcare, collaborative process, and the children’s conference they are planning in Botswana in November of 2014. They also see the bus as a space to open authentic conversation about race, gender, and equality. To read more about her project, click here.

Categories
AAF Awards and Projects Competitions SMU Creative Undergraduate Students

TAI Creative Students Win American Advertising/ADDY Awards

AAFWinners
SMU Students win local American Advertising Awards

Students at the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts won multiple honors, including Best of Show, in the Student category of the annual American Advertising Federation (AAF) American Advertising Awards local competition, hosted by AAF-Dallas on February 26 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. The awards were formerly known as the ADDYs.

The American Advertising Awards are the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising. Every year more than 50,000 entries are submitted in local American Advertising Awards competitions. The Student American Advertising Awards, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation and National Ad 2, are a sub-category designed especially for college students. Applicants must be enrolled full- or part-time in an accredited U.S. educational institution.

SMU students won awards in three categories, including one bronze, one silver and one gold. The gold-winning entry, a digital/mobile app developed for Einstein Brothers by Mackenzie Keck (B.A. ’14), was named Student Best of Show.

The SMU winning entries were as follows:

BRONZE AWARD

CLIENT: Scotch Blue Painter’s Tape
CATEGORY: Consumer/Trade Publication Campaign
CREDITS: Alexandra Nowlin and Jaimmy Koroma

SILVER AWARD

CLIENT: Dallas Zoo
CATEGORY: Non-Traditional Campaign
CREDITS: Mackenzie Keck and Paul Curry

GOLD AWARD AND STUDENT BEST OF SHOW

CLIENT: Einstein Brothers
CATEGORY: Digital-Mobile Apps
CREDITS: Mackenzie Keck

“We are proud of the work done by these imaginative and enthusiastic Temerlin students,” said Dr. Steve Edwards, chair of the Temerlin Advertising Institute. “There is no greater visibility for advertising students in Dallas than receiving these beautiful awards in front of 1000 professionals.”

Mackenzie Keck, an advertising/creative major with a double minor in film and graphic design, said she was thrilled to have won both a gold and Student Best of Show. “I am especially honored because there were so many outstanding student entries this year,” she said. “The creative program at SMU Temerlin has helped me so much – it provides well rounded training that most other schools don’t have. It lets us get an undergraduate degree and develop our portfolios at the same time.”

Categories
Portfolio Night

TAI Student Participates in Portfolio Night All Star Week in New York

Paul-Curry
TAI Student Paul Curry attends PN All Star Week

At its core, Portfolio Night is an event where aspiring young advertising copywriters, art directors and designers meet with several renowned advertising creative directors in a fast-paced evening of advice, networking and recruitment. Hand picked from Portfolio Night 11, twenty-three creative students from across the country assembled in Manhattan for the purpose of completing a week-long creative advertising challenge, one of whom was TAI’s very own Paul Curry.

The Portfolio Night All-Stars competition was sponsored by Ford and Adobe. The week began with the presentation of the creative assignment on August 5th. After five long, hard days and a few sleepless nights, the All-Stars presented their creative concepts on Friday August 10th. Each team had ten minutes to present to a panel of representatives from Ford, Team Detroit and the Art Directors Club.

Senior TAI student Paul Curry reflects on his experience at Portfolio Night All Star Week: “The trip was frustrating, hard, stressful, awesome, freeing, long, short, and exactly what I thought it was gonna be. It was the kind of experience that gives you experience. Personally I loved talking to these people from all over the country and world about advertising and just life in general. I learned a lot about my own creativity, as well as how to relish frustrating things.”

Curry was selected as Dallas’ All Star on May 22 at Portfolio Night Dallas, which was held at TM Advertising and sponsored by the Temerlin Advertising Institute. His portfolio was ranked highest amongst other top young creatives in the Dallas/Fort Worth advertising community.

To read more about Portfolio Night All Stars and their collaboration with Ford Motor Company, check out their website at http://portfolionight.com/11/archives/10085.

2013 Portfolio Night All Stars
Participants in Portfolio Night All Stars Week