Category: TAI Alumni

TAI Alumna Gives Back: Erin Hedrick of The Richards Group

Post author By
Post date June 22, 2015
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On June 18th, I had the incredibly opportunity to participate in the 10th Annual Home Team Build here at The Richards Group. As a recent graduate of the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU, I was excited about joining the working world, but was nervous about that whole “work/life balance” everyone kept talking about. Community service has been an ongoing theme and hobby in my life, and I wasn’t sure where that would fit into a busy, new schedule. But when I joined The Home Depot account at TRG, I was thrilled to learn that I was joining a team of people who were equally passionate about giving back.

Years ago, The Home Depot committed to an annual day of service to help those in need. In response, the team of people working on The Home Depot account here at The Richards Group decided to make the same commitment. For ten years, the Home Team has raised money and fixed up the homes of local Dallas families in need of a helping hand. And this year, we took on two houses, instead of one.

I pulled up to work at 6:00 in the morning, and was greeted by my surprisingly enthusiastic-for-it-being-so-early coworkers. We got on the bus and headed to work. We ripped up carpets. We chipped off old paint. We installed brand new appliances. We got dirty, sunburnt, and wow are we sore. But none of that mattered when the homeowners walked through the door at the end of the day, because we realized the difference that our work had made.

My education at TAI showed me that this is an industry where there are unlimited opportunities to give back, you just have to have the courage to take them. And boy, am I glad I did.

About the Author

Erin Hedrick is a 2015 MA in Advertising graduate from the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU, with a BA in Film & Media Arts. She currently works as a Brand Manager for The Home Depot account at The Richards Group.

Tags Better Advertising Better World, SMU, TAI, TAI Alumni, Temerlin Advertising Institute, The Richards Group

TAI Alumni

TAI Graduate with Dieste Pays Tribute to Advertising Greats

Post author By Erin Hedrick
Post date November 5, 2014
No Comments on TAI Graduate with Dieste Pays Tribute to Advertising Greats

Arturo Lee, a 2014 graduate of the TAI Masters in Advertising program, is now working at Dieste, a Hispanic marketing agency in Dallas. He and a group of creatives at the agency recently put out a tribute to the great creatives in advertising. Read more about the project from Arturo:

LosDeADMen “Los DeAD Men”: A Dia de Muertos Tribute to some of the greatest creative minds.

“Ever since my graduation from TAI I have been fortunate enough to work at Dieste. Dieste is a USH full service agency that handles clients like Cricket Wireless, AT&T, Goya Foods, and Hershey’s.

It should come as no surprise just how important Dia de los Muertos is for a Hispanic agency, so to commemorate this great holiday, a few of the creatives came up with the idea to pay tribute to some of the greatest creative minds in the industry.

By creating caricature gifs, some of the industry’s figureheads came to life as their very own Catrinas (skull paintings). Each of these gifs were then mounted on their very own Tumblr and shared throughout social media.

The tribute turned out to be a great success as many of the people honored (along with their agencies), retweeted and shared the work online. It was a truly amazing experience to get a chance to work on something so unique and that involved many famous names like David Droga, Gerry Graf and Marcelo Serpa.”