Nearly Halfway Done Here

So as you may recall, more or less the subject of my last post involved detailing how a projects gets completed as I went through the motions (tedious at times) of getting a piece ready for print. Here is the completed ad:

The full ad

The body copy that I spent my time working on

As that is probably hard to read here it is in full:

"How do you turn an ogre into a household name? By creating cutting-edge computer-generated animated films like Shrek and bringing SHREK THE MUSICAL to Broadway. Add in the likes of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, and you see why Dreamworks Animation is a leading innovator in the entertainment industry. No wonder they switched to the market known for its imaginative approach to listed-company visibility and visionary thinking —giving them access to the most advanced trading platform and unmatched suite of corporate services. NASDAQ. The global market for companies that move life forward."

The are, naturally, lots of things that must be kept in mind when developing copy for clients. I think in earlier posts I (hopefully) addressed those issues, however I wanted to shed light to the fact that there are lots of tiny little stipulations that must be noted. Certain words must be avoided as their meaning may lead to a lawsuit. So when you say something like "industry-leading" or something like that, it must be first approved by legal as it may cause a lawsuit.

Moving on to what I consider to be the more interesting detail is the fact that the client may request you include very specific words or direction for the copy to take. This ensures that the intended message is being conveyed as well as providing the copywriters guidelines to follow. This to me is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, you can disagree immensly with what they want you to say for whatever reasons...wether you think that the message they are going for is off mark, etc. However, I think it helps provided needed limitations to help start the brainstorming process as you now have a starting point.

And therein lies the challenge. How to effectively and creatively convey the message they want you to? How can you take the clients cues and craft a beautifully flowing paragraph that is compelling but yet concise, highlighting the key points so that readers will walk away remembering what it was you wanted them to?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't have much to say about this past week or so...I have gotten more work that will likely get published. It has occured to me that they have us doing lots of "grunt work." By that I mean stuff that is mundane and requires very little creativity. Don't missread that as a complaint however. I am extrememly greatful to be in the position I am in and relish every opportunity to further my skills. So while I may be executing stuff that noone else wants to do, it's all new to me and I would never take it for granted.

My only real complaint about the format of things here is our (interns) lack of connection to the other creatives. Everyone typically works in a small team of 2-3 and collectively brainstorm ideas/concepts. As I noted in my first post, my first real day on the job had me tagging along w/ a team and I got to see firsthand how this process takes shape, but that would be an isolated incident as to date that was the only time I got to participate with the creatives. I am going to try and inject myself into a team as there is so much to gain from being "in the trenches" with them. Years of knowledge, insight, advice, etc — these are all things that can be gained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the past week or so their have been some big meetings. They were very large scale and involved all the employees coming together to discuss recent work for clients. The atmoshpere for this was very positive and upbeat and I suspect the aim of these meetings was to boost morale, remind everyone just how great a place McKinney is and most importantly, to show everyone the fruits of their labor. So while only a small pertentage of people were actually involved in the exectution of the displayed work, I think it was good for everyone to be reminded that in the grand scheme of things they helped accomplish what got done. Essentially what had gone down was a giant pep ralley now that I think about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the realization that this week already marks the halfway point of my internship, looking forward my aim really does not exceed to continue to hone my craft and develop a stronger portfolio. Along the way, I hope to engage my coworkers more in an attempt to strengthen not only work relate skills, but to also build stronger bonds with the actual people here themselves.