What an experience! Now it’s time to shift gears and hopefully get some work!
The last two days at Will were pretty chill. I did a bit of production and another few video mockups for their website but since my time was wrapping up they weren’t going to lay any big projects on me. I spent the majority of Tuesday talking to a few more of the creative team that I hadn’t gotten a chance to connect with.
One of them was a fellow intern/new hire named Melissa Fraser https://mindfull.design/ who graduated from Wilson last year who was interning at Rethink and another studio (I forget which) until finding herself at Will. A little envious of their decision to keep her but she has more experience than I and had been there for three months before they decided to keep her around. It was nice to chat with someone else who had an interest in art direction and we spoke about ways of building up our books since her schooling didn’t offer much in the way of advertising either.
Next up I spoke with Allison Chambers, an IDEA grad from six or seven years ago. She’s someone who worked as a designer for the first few years before beginning to take on the role of art director for some projects, a few of which I quite enjoyed. An example was a press conference stunt held underwater by the Vancouver Aquarium to discuss rising ocean levels. They placed chairs and a podium a number of meters out so that people had attendees and speakers had to wear wetsuits and fly fishing gear. She likes the fact that most of the people at Will get to do both (design & advertising) because they are fun for different reasons and you get more variety in the type of projects. Smaller, nimble teams are something that I’m drawn to as well and it seems to be the trend in emerging agencies. The future is hopeful!
Another woman I spoke with was Lisa Lebedovich who, along with Nick, is Creative Director for Will. Check out https://cargocollective.com/lisalebedovich to see some of her work, although it appears to not have been updated in quite some time (all very awesome and clever work!). She handles the advertising projects and I expressed my interest in trying to break into that side of the industry one day.
I also talked with Michael one last time to thank him for the support and good times. He echoed some of Lisa’s comments about moving forward and offered me a reference if I’d like it. Michael is the man, for real!
Earlier in the day, I had sent out a mass email to the team to say my farewells and promote the grad show site! Many people wished me well and took the time to look at my stuff, sharing some nice comments about my work. My final creative daily check-in wrapped up the day and I said my goodbyes, promising to come for an in-person visit and beer at the office on a Friday afternoon (once things have calmed down, if ever!). I certainly hope to work with these folks in the future and I’ll do my diligence in staying in touch here and there. It went by so quickly, the practicum and school!! It wasn’t until that last 30 mins where I realized that aside from this blog post, this was the last “class time” I’d be spending. What a journey indeed.
Judy, I’ll miss you lots but I know where to get ahold of you and I’ll be doing that. I may even miss blog posts a bit, although I plan to start doing some of my own. It’s things like these that are easier said than done though!
Regards,
Aidan Zecchel