About Critical Mass
Critical Mass is an international Marketing firm that specializes in:
- Insight & planning
- Experience Design
- Experience Distribution
- Social Media
- Technology Services
- Marketing Science
Client List:
Nissan, Adidas, Theodore Alexander, Best Buy, Clorox, Humana, Budweiser, United, Moen, hp, Nasa, at&t, Nestle, Harley Davidson, peanuts, Infiniti
About Allison Garnett
Allison Garnett is a Creative Director with Critical Mass. Before coming to Critical Mass, Allison started her own business (SuperCapacity) and worked at Taxi.Lecture Notes
"as much as I love what I do, work comes second, and family and personal life comes first."
Creative Director = a jack of all trades
designer/art director/project manager/account manag
er/new business/stylist/
photographer/creative direction...etc
-She started her own business (supercapacity) after she had adopted a child. Moved to Taxi and then after having another child moved to Critical Mass.
-Her first stepping stone were landing the accounts: Molson Canadian, Levi's and Nike.
"When you're looking for that first job, for me it's not about the company, it's trying to get as much experience as you can and getting some work into your book to be able to move onto a better position." - Garnett
Taxi
-She was there for 6 years, and finally left because it was getting too comfortable, and not feeling challenged.
Clients: MINI, Town Shoes, LCBO Microsites, Cadillac Fairview (vertical movement website, the great thing about the building was that it was sustainable), Taxi packaging, Westjet (identity design), Telus (digital, was definitely one of the hardest years of her career)
"sometimes you don't have a large budget to hire all the extra people, so you just have to do it yourself, be innovative." - Garnett
"The great thing about being on a digital team of an agency that owns the whole brand, you don't have to rely on the assets they send you, it gives you the opportunity to push your work further."
Moving on to Critical Mass
-She moved because she wanted to focus and become really good at one thing. She wanted to work on a big website, something with an IA, a planner and a tech team.
-At Taxi they could not compete and pitch for interactive work because of their limited development team.
- Her first project: Luxury furniture site by Theodore Alexander. "It was really complicated. I pretended I knew what I was doing, and within a few months I really did know what I was doing." They really treated the furniture almost like a Rolex watch or a High end car. Most clients, you end up having to use all the assets they have, but they pitched the idea of re-shooting the furniture with their style guide. They really wanted people to perceive them as high end, so they opened up their own studio on Vietnam, hire
d a team and reshot all of their furniture.
- Brita USA site.
- Nestle small-budget projects(facebook apps etc)
- Sears
"I do a lot of pitching to land a business. What critical mass is good at doing, is creating great videos for their pitches to make their ideas come to life. These are the things you have to do these days to win business. Everyone is after the same piece of pie, and this is what you have to do to win business." - Garnett
"You can't look to your job necessarily to fulfill you. I like to things on the side that make me happy. I still always have projects on the go and I have my book of ideas." - Garnett
Other Pursuits
-She designs Identities in her spare time.
-Pro-Bono work is good.
-SuperCapacity - business card - won awards, in her top 5 pieces of all time.
- Biotherm
"Contests are a great way to also have some fun." - Garnett
http://www.canneslions.com/ ($125 entry fee)
- Land of Sparkalot (her tumblr blog)
it's important to take note of things that are taking off on the web (aka tumblr).
- Valigirls blog
- Hello blog (photo blog) - started this blog when she went to China to adopt a child.
"when you put yourself out there you open yourself up to a lot of opportunities." - Garnett
It's just advertising
"we don't save lives, so have fun, and make cool shit."
"when you have kids you realize if you have an hour of free time you have to use it up, you have to make use of each hour."
- make stickers, cool business cards, mailer....to get them to keep your information. moodcard: mood.com.
- open house- don't be afraid to ask for cards, and email your portfolio, info to them. It doesn't hurt to follow up, because there's nothing to lose.
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