S is for Scrappy

Glitter scrapbook paper, hot glue guns, and rhinestones aren’t what everyone associates with college graduation. However, it’s common for sorority women to take any opportunity to craft, so I’m not sure why I thought this milestone would be any different.

Deciding to decorate my graduation cap wasn’t just an effort to individualize myself in a sea of graduates, upgrade a boring hat, or avoid studying for finals. Rather it was a chance to express what has made these four years possible, and better yet, the four best years of my life.

It may seem silly—and maybe it is, most of the best things are—but we gain so much from learning in some way or another what motivates, energizes, and gets people out of bed in the morning, even if it’s just through a photo.

“Yes you can” is the phrase I have told myself during the longest push-up series imaginable, all-night study sessions, emotionally draining days, and four half marathons. More importantly, it’s the phrase I’ve shouted to my loyal Wednesday night UMN Rec yoga sculpt students for two years, used to ensure friends in times of doubt, and even told my dog during laps around the neighborhood.

It’s a personal mantra, and the best part is, it’s not personal. It’s not mine, I believe I stumbled upon it through CorePower classes four years ago as a freshman, and it stuck for the remainder of my college experience, and has no plans to disappear. It’s not mine, because it resonates with the ears it lands on. I have many friends and sorority sisters who will tell me they hear me voicing this mantra as they reach a difficult part of their workout or life. It’s built and nourished by a community and support system that has maintained my enthusiasm, positivity, and sanity when I couldn’t do it alone. This graduation isn’t personal.

The pearls hugging the rim of the cap represent Alpha Gamma Delta, as it is our chapter jewel. Words can’t describe the role this chapter and these women have played in my college experience or life, so it only made sense for the pearls to tie everything together. That’s what Alpha Gam has always done for me, I’ve said here is the laundry list of what I want to accomplish, the types of lasting friendships I want to sustain, and the responsibility I want to take on. Even when these combinations created a bit of chaos, there was comfort knowing I was protected by a safe space where I could be authentic, try something new, and most importantly, find out what should not be tried again.

Finally, the lilac lotus flower. If you’re an avid SarahReedit reader (consider it), you’ll know the lilac wasn’t coincidental. Lotus flowers grow, nourish, and strengthen through mud before blossoming into the gorgeous flowers we recognize from the local yoga studio or hippie neighbor. My college experience wasn’t mud, my life hasn’t been mud, which I truly express gratitude for every day. However, mud still comes and goes for us all; and recognizing these times as opportunities to blossom even more once it’s gone, is what allows us to notice the beauty in ourselves and around us. We have a lot to learn from the little guys, and I am happy to continue copying them in admiration.

For you, maybe it’s not a hat, or a jewel, or a yoga mantra. But many things, many words, many people have gotten you to where and who you are today. Take the time to celebrate that—diploma or not—and rejoice in what this group effort has created and what is to come.
Yes you can!

Some projects are like pulling teeth, especially as a senior. However, there’s others that you’re excited to work on, where you want to see your group the next day, and you can’t wait to present your work. And it’s a pretty good sign when those projects are for classes in your major.

Digital Media for Strategic Communications at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities has excited me with new challenges, and at the same time comforted with me with the reminder that my strengths are all welcome in this space. 

All semester, we have been working in groups and using the American Craft Council as a client for various projects. For our final project, we brought together the whole semester of work, which included research, strategic goals, detailed plans for owned, earned, and paid media for three different campaigns, reasoning, and expected results.

Something we kept hearing over and over again was that people have the wrong idea when it comes to “craft.” Even referring to the ACC’s work as “fine craft” was still not redirecting the conversation. This was also reflected on the almost immediate bounce rate the website has experienced.

I wanted to change this, and made my focus a campaign that asks supporters, strangers, and everyone in between to #RedefineCraft.

The idea behind this campaign was to change the conversation surrounding craft, and recognize the American Craft Council as a respected source of thought leaders, talent, and unbeatable quality.

Get ready Minneapolis, craft has arrived.

We’re not often encouraged to judge a book by it’s cover, but when my professor assigned us to redesign the cover of a book we have read, Sugar Nation came to mind right away.

1. The Medium is the Message- By looking at this book, I expected to learn about all the places where sugar is hidden in

the American diet and how to improve our nutrition. I was also hoping to learn all the reasons sugar is detrimental to our diets, in hopes that I would have more motivation to tame my sweet tooth.While some people wouldn’t consciously think a book cover, they may just like one more than another, how much I hated the cover of this book crossed my mind every time I picked it up. Here’s why:

The author had other intentions, which was to tell more of a memoir of how Diabetes has impacted his life. I blame this miscommunication on the cover of the book, which may seem harsh, but that’s the purpose of a book’s cover and graphic design in general, is to communicate with the viewer.

2. What Meets the Eye- I also thought that the colors and fonts chosen for the cover do not match up with the overall tone of the novel. Neon blue and white is far more uplifting and dynamic than the copy beneath the cover. The main focus of the book, as I mentioned, is his own and his father’s journey with diabetes, along with commentary on how diabetes is being treated. I’m not sure about you but I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion.

3. Start at Square One- The images associated with the title take a very literal approach to the title’s message. Once again, while this communicates a connection between our nation and sugar, the title and the imagery used do not match the narrative. The caption below also doesn’t match up with the image, because nothing about a flag in a sugar bowl is hidden or related to medicine. Basically, the recommendation here is to change everything, including the title of the book.

Rather than using the imagery of only sugar and the flag, I thought it would be more effective to communicate the role sugar has played in US History, with using entertainment events like pie-eating contests as an example. This also conveys that this connection between our country and sugar is not a new phenomenon, which is important when attempting to create change. The roots run deep.Moving forward, I started to understand why the diabetes piece may have not been included in the cover. It’s hard. Utilizing medical or diabetes imagery  can be difficult to convey in a visually-appealing way. After playing around with it, I decided to take a less modern approach to the design, to at least give it more of a memoir feel.

I’m not sure this completely solves the miscommunication between the book’s topic and cover, but removing the caption hopefully opens it up for more interpretation. If the assignment called for creating our own images over finding images, I may have been able to communicate the message further; but I still believe the title starts this novel off a different path than  where the reader is taken.

I believe this shows the importance of communication between parties, the designer should never just be fulfilling orders, but rather offering creative perspective to find a way for the most effective link between the written and visual communication.

What do you think could help either of these covers?

International Women’s Day brings to mind many bold and courageous females, continuous struggles for equality, and apparently, advertisements.

Always has caught my attention once again, with their recent release of another video, Stronger Together, for their #LikeaGirl campaign.

This campaign took social media by storm when it was released in the summer and again when shown in the 2015 Superbowl. To keep the buzz alive, Always celebrated International Women’s Day with a #LikeaGirl campaign video that showcases girls and young women, worldwide, displaying what it means to be a Like a Girl.

Originally, the ad related to athleticism, as that is an area where girls and women tend to be belittled or thought of as inferior. However, in this new video they address the many areas of life girls and women excel at, but are often not regarded as leaders in the field. This includes “calculate #LikeaGirl,” as a female student completes a math problem and “experiment #LikeaGirl,” as another student does chemistry.

While some have thought of this campaign as random, or worse, that it is capitalizing on feminism for corporate gain. To be fair, the company has boosted sales as a result to the Superbowl air time. Call me an optimist, but I think the new Stronger Together video solidifies Always’ intentions. As a company focused on the female market and needs, taking a stance on the empowerment of women doesn’t seem like a far stretch to me. Here’s why:

1. Rewrite the narrative: The tagline is powerful because it converts a phrase that is often intended as an insult, and shows why there is nothing about being a girl that someone should be ashamed of. Likewise, it is not uncommon to hear “time of month jokes” in conversation or in the media, so much so that they can be used to justify why women shouldn’t be trusted to lead a household, a company, or the nation.

2. Perspectives have impact: Sadly, I think everyone has heard the criticisms of female politicians being “too emotional” to handle foreign affairs, or the tongue in cheek jokes about wars that could start when said politician was menstruating. The #LikeaGirl tagline allows Always to cover all of these areas where girls and women need empowerment.

3. The new video also solidifies pre-teens as their target market, which is reaching girls at a time in their life when the Always brand has a new sense of relevance. As girls are entering puberty, Always wants their message to be clear, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Not to mention, this target market is also creating brand loyalty for potential lifelong users.

When it comes to the popularity of the ad, I think a great deal of credit goes to the strength of the tagline. It’s short and sharable—hence the Facebook impressions—it’s memorable, which helps sales; and it’s inspiring, which creates an emotional connection with the brand.

But more than anything, I think women of all ages resonate with this ad and just wish it came out sooner, so they could be the young girls empowered to inspire others.

As students, we’re often told not to narrow ourselves into one area of strategic communications, as the fine lines that separate advertising, public relations, marketing, etc. continue to stretch and shift.

Originally, I never saw myself filling any role in advertising or marketing. Strategic communications as a whole, really, felt like intimidating, uncharted territory that I could just skim the surface of with my love for events and writing. However, through diverse opportunities and challenging myself to diversify what opportunities I think I can approach, this thinking has shifted.

I think these fine lines that separate focuses have more to do with the people than the work. Public relations always appealed to me for the opportunity to create relationships on behalf of an organization and impact how people think of their brand. That appeal still exists, but I now recognize that my skills for this can be- and need to be- applied to all mediums of strategic communications.

The advertisements and campaigns I get most excited about do just that, which is why I am highlighting Petsmart’s Partners in Parenthood campaign (by GSD&M). The advertisements, two of which were shown during the Oscars, play on the idea of pets being part of the family, and create satiric scenes of the different stages of “parenthood.”

The extended version of all the advertisements can be found on YouTube, and can credit a good fraction of their views to my free time and love for dogs.The campaign’s unifying idea is that PetSmart will be with you every step of this journey, something every actor calls out in some way in the commercials and online videos. PetSmart brings attention to the humorous and all too true dynamics of a pet owner, which looks much more like a parent and child. It also creates or reinforces a need by telling pet owners “No, you aren’t caring too much about your pet, don’t second guess these toys, boots or grooming sessions.” At the same time, the products are weaved into the stories so well, you don’t feel like they’re being aggressive.

The marketing directors of PetSmart said their goal was to “make people laugh or smile as they recognize themselves or someone they know in the videos; and to remember PetSmart, I think it will set us apart.” They predict it will be a successful campaign, which I completely agree with.

Within minutes of finding the ads on YouTube, I posted the full video (2 minutes vs. 30 second t.v. spot) to my friend’s

Facebook, tweeted about the campaign and quickly emailed the links to my family. When you can see your self or others in an ad, it builds a connection with that brand, a sense of they get me.

Additionally, PetSmart had traditionally took a more “features” approach to advertising, which didn’t really set them apart or make them too memorable. This campaign focuses more on their customers and what PetSmart has in common with them, a love for pets. The creative target audience seems to be “obsessive pet owners,” or “helicopter pet parents,” who can be reached in a completely different way than the people who are looking just for the essentials for their pet.

PetSmart is making fun of how ridiculous owners like Anna Farris (and me) sound when describing the haircut their imagining for their dog’s grooming, but at the same time they are saying, we get it, they aren’t just a dog, they’re family.

If that’s not focusing on creating a relationship, I’m not sure what is.