Le Blog 5

Holy Moley

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Well this is awkward.

It's been about three months since my last rant but here goes the first of the new year.
In December I completed a 5 month stint as an intern in both marketing and graphic design actually using stuff that I learned years ago! Who knew right? for givinggifts.com.au and Pacific Retail Management (PRM).
I learned so much from the teams there.  
The girls of the Marketing team were amazing in their wealth of knowledge of how to sell not only sushi (PRM own Go Sushi, Sushi Tribe and Wasabi Warriors as well as Kick juice bars and a few more interesting ventures) but how to sell stores not only nationally but internationally!  
The Graphics team on the other hand taught me so much on top of the skills I obtained from Shillington College it made my head spin.  
The graphics guru John, took me under his wing and mentored me in how things are to be and should be done.   
With the majority of his designs being the logos and look for all of PRM I listened up and took in all I could even taking up the all important physical notepad and pen which turned into a godsend in the long run as excuses don't exist in the business anymore because you learn as you gain experience over time.
The Giving Gifts team were also awesome in what they do too as I spent many days emailing potential working partners and listening to the cool and new happenings of digital world.
It was sad seeing one of the other interns (props to you Caitie) leave as she couldn't handle the vocal interactions and pressure of the business but she did an amazing job on the clerical side which was a huge help during the cross over to the new international intern.
Anke was awesome as she and I worked very close over he stint at PRM and Giving Gifts.
Hailing from Germany, she taught me many things not only about international marketing but about myself, you learn this after butting heads a lot then figuring out that your pronunciation of certain words was not how she pronounced them (Australian English is different from International English/American English/Queen's English) but we got around that thanks to several friends who are Aussie but now live in Germany I swear I will visit you one day!

On top of being taught how to market and design for multiple businesses was an amazing experience but on top of that came the fun of being invited to big events, these included Melbourne Cup at Royal Randwick and the Christmas Party at Nick's Bar and Grill and Bungalow 8.
Here I learned the other side of business being; LET YOUR GOD DAMN HAIR DOWN ONCE IN A WHILE!
With all the fun and games of these social events there was also the fun of hanging with the Two Ducks girls (PRM has an onsite daycare center) which was very interesting as they wrangle the kids that storm the office once in awhile.  
Counting the number of times "Mum" was screamed in the office was a great way to stay sane when the workloads got out of hand for everyone especially the design teams.

Another great experience was the new venture for PRM in the form of Monkey House Media.  
The Graphics team was going to branch out and not only do PRM business but other business as well but first we needed a name and the best way to get that was Fish and Chip Friday (first Friday of every month PRM would shout fish and chips to the whole team before a brainstorming session).
Over a hundred names went up on the board during the brainstorm but the clear favorite was "Barrel of Monkeys" but due to copyright we changed that to Monkey House.
As one of the team members can not only do graphics but video editing and animation and another in the field of website design we added the Media at the end to show that we are a multi-talented media agency.
The Graphics head decided to hold a competition for the four team members to come up with their look and feel for the Monkey House Media with logos etc within two weeks for first draft with $200 as a prize at the end or heading to a design forum for entries if nothing impressed him.
Well the design team worked our butts off coming up with several designs each for the first draft which were all loved but had to be refined.
Second draft came around and the words taken to heart turned out to be wrong but at the same time great pointers to the right direction of where the design should go, the only problem being no clear winner in sight.
Third and final draft came round and the creme de la creme were produced.
Every logo was refined to be perfect, each standing out on their own coloured or black and white it didn't matter.
As it was another fish and chip Friday, the whole company got together to decide who had the winning design the only problem being everyone loved everyone's design.
At the end two were chosen over the four presented to go into the final round.
I'm happy to say that I was one of them, completely freaked out that the other three had four or more years of experience over me which was a real eye opener.
Even with two choices it was still hard to choose who won outright with the competition going into yet another month.
External help was also stumped with the two completely different looks of the logo as one looked refined while the other had huge potential. One guess of who had potential!
In the end I lost only because the head graphic and my mentor had refined all aspects of Monkey Hose Media making them readily available for use straight away.
It wasn't all bad news as the Art Director wants to revisit my design in a re-brand once the company is up and running.
With that great news I was offered a freelancing position at Monkey House as the business has to be stable and profitable to bring me in full time once the web and examples are up.

On top of that 2013 was a great year and now 2014 looks even better.


Fox out!