Apples

My favorite season: fall. My favorite month: October. My favorite holiday: Halloween.  I think it is safe that currently I am a very happy camper. Also, if you have not already guessed I have chosen to be a pumpkin for Halloween. This is a year of many firsts; I get to experience the change of not one, not two, but three seasons here in NYC, and from what I have heard fall is the best! I am in love with the breezy air, the chestnuts I spotted this week roasting on an open fire, and apple picking.

My friend Brianne at Fishkill Farms

Just in case you were wondering what the season’s attire is, I just so happened to be people watching on my way to lunch in Mid-Town today. Everyone is contradicting themselves and the weather! On one hand you have a woman in a summer dress with boots and no tights on, then you have my co-worker dressed in enough layers to survive a tundra. I am sure outsiders must think New Yorkers are crazy, since everyone has their own idea of weather appropriate! Speaking of crazy, I went to Chop’t salad for lunch and realized that not only does my server have to chop my salad at the speed of light, but I have to make decisions even quicker. First of all, I am not a very decisive person when it comes to my food, so you can only imagine how that turned out. I am pretty sure I asked for tomatoes, the one thing I despise on my salad, it was overwhelming. I hope every other indecisive person reading my blog post today notes to always prepare a skit of their meal before setting off into the sea of Men-in-suits-hattan.  

Now I will spend the rest of this post writing about apple picking, my newfound hobby. I am a Florida girl born and raised, I didn’t even realize people up north had houses on hills that is how clueless I was moving here. Not only did I go through a culture shock my freshman year at Drexel, but I also found a fascination with doing outdoorsy things. For example, I think I have texted Jaclyn Fleurant (d&m@work classmate) to go apple picking with me at least once a week this entire month. I absolutely love the idea that you can simply go to a farm and eat apples right off the tree. A couple weekends back I went to Fishkill Farm in upstate New York; it was the perfect dose of activity away from the city. My friends and I spent a few hours at the farm and then ate at the cutest restaurant outside that had live music from Germany’s Oktoberfest. It was like a scene from Halloween Town, and if you get a chance this fall to go pick apples don’t even think twice about it! In conclusion, after one amazing season to another, I already have a feeling that this won’t be my last fall in NYC either.

P.S. This is semi off topic, but FYI the Apple store in NYC is open 24 hours. 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The more time that I spend in New York the more I realize that a big part of the social life here is food. With money being slim it is hard to go out every night and spend money on unnecessary food. This seems to be tarnishing my relationship with this city. I have been searching for a place that involves the social aspect of the city along with the broke aspect of a college student. Today was my lucky day! Ironically enough I was unaware that the restaurant I live above, Tome Sushi, possesses all of these qualities. 

My roommates and I have always been curious about this restaurant, as it quite often has a line stretching down the block. We are forced to notice this everlasting line because it just so happens that it prohibits us from entering our building. Everyday like clockwork, “excuse me I live here, and no I am not trying to cut in line.” However, it wasn’t until today that we decide it was time to conform to the line and try this Tome Sushi.

All day at work I was so excited to come home! I was salivating at the thought of delectable sushi. My roommates and I considered calling to make reservations – however, we decided that standing and waiting in line was part of the experience. To our disappointment it started raining and the line waiting process was taken from us. We were able to go right in and sit down, don’t get me wrong, I did not want to stand in the rain! I just felt as though I were being robbed of a small part of the Tome Sushi experience. Once we sat down and were preparing to look at the menu we noticed small signs dispersed throughout the restaurant saying, “CASH ONLY.” This was an unpleasant thing to read seeing as all three of us only had plastic. I decided to be the hero and run to the local bank and take money out - and the rest is history. I had the best sushi of my life. While leaving I told my friends that if ever they could not find me, they better check Tome Sushi. 

Photoshop Is My Best Friend

Being in charge of graphics for my Department while at school has allowed me to master the technique of balancing my time efficiently. Work that I am assigned for my job is similar to homework in that there are deadlines, but the hours that I am required to work are semi-flexible and tailored to my schedule. Ongoing projects that I am responsible for involve creating all graphics for the band we manage, Colour of London. Examples of graphics include the lyric of the day, fan of the week, and upcoming show/tour announcements. All of these graphics are created using a consistent sized template based off where the graphic will be placed. 

My first question when starting a graphic is what is it's intention? Is it for social media purposes, for print, or for digital viewing? Knowing the destination of the graphic is crucial because it determines what size the graphic will be which then determines how much content can be included. For example, if I am going to create a social media graphic, I am going to make it the appropriate size of an image that pops up on your Facebook feed, so that way all of the information is visible to the viewer without them even having to click on it. Similarly, if I am going to make an email blast, the graphic has to be appropriately sized. Like a Facebook graphic, I want most of the information to be viewable without even having to scroll down to view more, so I want the dimensions of the graphic to encompass the size of a standard email message. This automatic visibility improves the attention rate of the viewer and captures their attention faster. With advertising, everything you create has to capture a viewer's attention fast, almost instantaneously, or else it forgotten and the viewer is lost. Working in advertising, whether it be digital or print, enhances your eye for detail, nothing can go unnoticed, everything has to be justifiable and accounted for. 

This week I am creating seven lyric of the day's (one for each day), one fan of the week (that has a standard template with the fan's picture and name added each week), an email blast, revising a promo package that I have been working on for about two months now, and revising show announcements as the tour dates are confirmed. The newest addition to the Entertainment Department started this week, and she will be taking over managing the band's social media that includes creating/curating content, scheduling posts for the week, and analyzing the trends of our engagement and following. While I was on Co-op, this was part of my responsibility, however as tasks become more demanding, my job has shifted to designing and creating all of our Entertainment graphics. I can already tell that the addition of an official social media manager is going to help our Department a great deal because there are not enough hours in the day for me and my co-worker to dedicate to social media after all of the work we have on our plates! This addition will allow each one of us to focus our attention on what we are best at and will make us a better team for it. I am excited to see what she brings to the table! And I am so excited to see my Department expanding!

An example of a Lyric Of The Day used for social media

Living The Brand

Right now I am in Lake Tahoe, California with the entire North Face Team! I have heard so much about the sales meeting and now I am finally here! I am meeting people from all of North America including people from Canada and teams from Asia and South America as well. It is amazing to see that the brand stretches internationally and I get to meet people that are doing the same things we do in West  Chester. I get to interact with amazing people that work for the brand like the design team and product development team as well as the marketing team that helps push the products. We learn about every activity under the activity based model and hear it straight from the designers themselves about why they made certain design choices. It's so interesting because every activity has similar designs with their respective differences to fit their customer. It's also crazy that the brand is so large that each category has such a different customer. For example, performance does not have the same customer as  action sports.

In about an hour we are heading out to the Sochi Olympic party to watch a movie about the athletes and get ready for the 2014 Olympics!

I am learning so much and can't wait to bring the information back with me to help with selling to accounts!

Somethin' Bout A Truck

Rolling out of bed at 7:00 am, grabbing a quick bite to eat, and rushing to the morning train has instantly become part my morning routine.However, it was last Thursday that I had the opportunity to change this daily ritual.  

One of the best aspects about working with Mary Dougherty is being able to participate in all facets of Nicole Miller Philadelphia.  Last week I had the pleasure of venturing to Baltimore, Maryland for my first trunk show experience.  With Courtney, the Director of Wholesale, by my side, we loaded up the 22 foot truck with the entire Nicole Miller runway collection and headed out on the road!  We spent three hours sharing stories, listening to music, and bonding over my current internship.  Although I do not work directly with Courtney, she is still part of the Nicole Miller team, and it was exciting to get to know her on a more personal level.  

After finally arriving at Panache boutique, it was time to start the event.  The trunk show consisted of 8 hours of fashionable women browsing through Nicole Miller Artelier and the Runway collection.  Everyone was oohing and ahhing with excitement as they tried on Nicole Miller’s signature gowns.  It was amazing seeing these garments directly off the runway and on these women! As the day came to an end, I reflected on my time at Panache and my capability to sell a brand that I strongly connect to.  It is gratifying to know that my time in Maryland directly contributed to the success of a local business and Nicole Miller Philadelphia.  If given the chance, I would love to go on the road again; and maybe this time I will walk away with something to add to my closet! 

11:13 AM

Finding a seat in the midst of rush hour, purchasing a daily round-trip train pass, and being forced to listen to loud phone conversations nearby are only a few instances that occur in a commuters morning. Thankfully with my headphones in hand, I am able to tune the chaos out and replace the loud phone conversations with my music (particularly Lorde at the moment). These past two weeks I have had to commute in and out of the city for appointments and activities for my boss. Commuting has given me a new appreciation for what my father has to go through everyday, as well as some of my fellow colleagues. While I wait for the morning sun to disappear as it is replaced with the darkness from the tunnel, curious thoughts about the strangers around me fill my mind. Thinking about my day ahead, I wonder what my fellow commuters on the train are doing when they enter the city. I wonder about their jobs, their lives, and whether or not they find this mode of transportation relaxing or stressful. Although my commute these past two weeks have had moments of rush and stress, focusing on my day ahead and letting my imagination run free has become a part of my routine during my commute. Rather than letting the aggravation of my commute get to me, I learned to make use of it as my time to reflect and be just another stranger and commuter on the train.

My commute by train to New York will be replaced with the subway, as I will be moving into my apartment this week. As I prepare for the move, I cannot help but think about my move to Philadelphia last year. I reflect on my past and I am amazed at how quickly time goes by. The other day while I was blogging I stumbled upon a quote that resonated with me, and I am sure it will with many of you as well. “Time is a sneaky little thing. In the way it tricks you into thinking you always have enough but you never do.” Rather than counting down and measuring my life with time, I have been trying to make it a goal to focus on the present. In the past, like many of us, it can be so easy to look to the future and stress about it. With the help of my morning commute, I have realized how important it is to focus on the present, because more time is not always promised.

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!

Xx

New Places

Today instead of working at Duke and Winston's showroom I got to attend one of their trunk shows at a private high school. Having a change of setting was nice and gave me a different outlook on the company and it's customers. I got to see a lot of customers that normally would not come in to the showroom to buy stuff but either order online or buy at trunk shows (which makes up a large part of the customer base). Duke and Winston is also opening up a second store where these customers will be able to get to easier then the showroom in Northern Liberties. I really liked being able to interact with the customers because it gave me a better understanding of the company. Being able to understand who is buying the product is obviously the most important aspect of a company selling things so I am glad I finally am able to understand this better.

It was also really nice seeing how a trunk show works and how it differs from what is done in a showroom. The amount of work that is put in to producing these sales really ends up paying off for the company which is obviously a good thing. I really am learning a lot on how a company starting up has to do a lot of different things to get sales and attention from consumers.