John Alabazowski of Maclaren McCann

Maclaren McCann is known to still be one of the best and longest 

striving agencies in Canada to this day. They work with many 
other agencies in orderto create great ads (ads are their focus). 

They are located in three Canadiancities; Toronto, Calgary and 

Vancouver - Toronto being the largest.

http://www.maclaren.com/

John spoke very highly of his company, which showed his strong 

commitment at Maclaren McCann. He stressed that we have to be 

creativewhen speaking of our portfolios. This means, that we 

should not be shy showing our independent (non-school work) to 

them as portfolio pieces because they usually are the most effective 

and interesting pieces they enjoy looking at.

He also stressed on collaboration is everything and anything. 

Without collaboration,you are no successful, by not accomplishing 

deadlines.

What I found very risky was when he spoke of Apple not accepting 

their Chevy Application for its iPhone at first. What I think is 

wrong, is that iPhone has to see the final finished product before 

its final approval for their iPhone application.Thankfully, Maclaren

McCann did not give up and convinced Apple that it should be an

iPhone application. I enjoyed listening to their non-charity work 

they do, free of charge. Maclaren McCann takes great pride in charity

work. Charity organizations are their top favourite people they like 

working with since it is for a good cause.Out of all the pieces he has 

shown in class, I really enjoyed listening and seeing ads done for Buick, 

Chevy Cruze and the charity organization camp up north in Canada. 

Pamela Divinsky and Alden Hadwen

The Divinsky Group

Contact: 

416.562.6414
pamela@divinskygroup.com
 

About Pamela Divinsky:

Founder of The Divinsky Group. Has over 20 years of experience 

in corporate strategy, social change research, management consulting 

and corporate responsibility strategy development and implementation.

About Alden Hadwen:

Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Aeroplan Canada, 

and at Groupe Aeroplan, a global leader in loyalty management. She has 

overall responsibility for the development and management of all 

aspects of Aeroplan’s CSR program including Community Investment, 

Environmental Stewardship, Employee Engagement and Art Partnerships. 

I unfortunately did not attend this particular day. I did however 

visit their website. I enjoyed reading,"The objective is to manage 

the full impact your business has on the world and do this in ways 

that improve the world, and your business. The outcome is sustainable 

social change and enduring business success. I personally believe, 

that when companies stand up for what they believe in are more 

successful than anything else. Yes, it indeed does take a lot of work 

for particular acts to be affective, but that is the whole excitement 

behind it, in expressing your beliefs. This company is definitely 

strong and powerful in its development of clear Social Missions and 

Social Capital Strategies that earn the pride of employees, the trust

of consumers, respect of investors and watchers, and ensures 

that the result is true impact. Key to this is measurement. 

ROM

 

The ROM experience was quite interesting. I was very fascinated with the stone exhibit. This is because this exhibit is carrying many various stones from across the world that you tend to forget about. The interesting part was the large stones before its cutting; the original stone from the ground. When it came to the interactivity part of this exhibit; it was less updated than the technology we have today. This is because they had a + and – for zoom in and zoom out. In today’s society we tend to use our fingers to expand an image to view closer and zoom out, therefore the image was restricted in doing this. I personally do not mind this though because non-technology users would not understand how to zoom in and zoom out without the + and – signs.  I personally think the + and – is a good design because you click and hold however long you like. What I did not like was that the information for every stone because it was very brief and straightforward ie. name of stone and its country origin. There was no in-depth information ie. meaning behind the stone, its healing aspect, how it was first found, etc.  Over, all the remaining exhibits did not carry very advanced technology. Some people like that while others would like to see some more advanced technology. I personally do not mind when you are restricted to technology because you focus more on the artwork itself then. I feel that technology can prevent you from learning about a particular artifact when you start doodling with technology in the same exhibit room.

Sapient

Sapient Representatives came in today:

Kim Welch - Studio Manager

David Han - Senior Art Director and Sheridan graduate

Sonia Janovjak - Director of Human Resources (sjanov@sapient.com)

About Sapient:

-It is a global agency, located in the US, Canada, UK, Germany and India. It is the world’s first customer experience company (Sapient Nitro). They also work with the global markets and government services. This defines it having end-to-end capabilities; wide range of design opportunities from banner ads to technology.

-It has over 60,00 employees globally; Toronto itself has 195-200 individuals.

-They were really impressed with their interactive Coke machine as one of their many successful finished projects.

Because of my background education, I really enjoyed listening about the user experience process they do with several of their projects; everything related to user research, personas and information architecture.

Resume/Portfolio Input

Moreover, they gave thorough information related to portfolio expectations. They require good typography skills (proximity, leading etc.) Express your interests as well as problem solving skills, the process you went through that brought you to your final executions.

Meanwhile, your resume should be a simple clean one page with white space and perhaps your logo. David strongly stressed on typography fundamentals and bullets-- having 60% intensity and larger than your type.

Good job search engines they introduced were:

www.procom.ca

www.hire.ca

Creative Niche Inc.

Creative Niche Inc.

http://www.creativeniche.ca/

110 Spadina Avenue, Suite 604

Toronto, ON M5V 2K4

T | 416.360.3893 x237

F | 416. 360.0137

Stephen Hodges, President
x226

Adele Wootton, Client Services Director
x223

Adele Wootton (Director, Client Service) and Stephen Modges (President) have came in today to speak about how to find a good paying job after graduation in the art/design industry today.

They both have over 20 years of design industry experience, causing great feedback as to what they expect from future resumes, portfolios and employees, in general.

Statistics:

Salary has not changed for over 25 years:

-Intermediate Designers: 55, 000 approx.

-Senior Designers: 75, 000 approx.

* Note: This wage has not changed for over 25 years. They are in the process of posting statistics about this and questions related to when will this change and how.

Job Recommendations:

Obvious jobs:

-Production artist

-Graphic designer

-Art Director

Less obvious:

-Content manager

-Project manager

-Studio manager

-Production manager

Not obvious:

-SEO/SEM

-U/X Designer Specialist

-Online community manager

*Note: Keep an eye on the latest job occupations and descriptions because they are the next big trends. Plus, applying for these less obvious and not obvious jobs creates a higher advantage of receiving an occupation within that specific field.

*Note:  Both Adele and Stephen recommend recent graduates to apply for freelance job opportunities. This is because it is very competitive for recent graduates to receive a job in the agency world. When having freelance work experience, there is a higher chance of receiving a future agency job opportunity because you have accomplished a good business-minded portfolio and experience doing freelance.

Resume Feedback:

1. When applying for a job, carefully read the job description and ask yourself whether you fit the jobs needs and qualifications; if not, then there is no need of you applying. 

2. Always keep your resume up to date with all recent job occupations, skills, needs and goals. However, do not focus on ie. 2 day jobs; it is irrelevant to put on your resume.

3. PAR: Stress on problem, action and result to identify you being a problem solver.

4. Be specific with your past positions: ie. Updated 5 websites on daily bases for the client’s needs – instead of – ie. Updated websites.

5. Design of your Resume: Should be 81/2 by 11 for easy printing access.  Some companies prefer a .doc in contrast to a pdf, therefore, it shows whether the company is conservative/traditional or creative. Pdf resumes should be more creative and represent you as an artist, in contrast to a .doc.

6. Be more commercial/business minded than creative. Speak about the marketing/business strategy behind it, the process as to how you came about your final design(s) and decision(s).

As an Individual:

1. Keep yourself updated with the most recent trends. If you write a proposal to your company about an event that you consider participating in, they might even pay for your attendance. Participating in events is also good when you get fired or laid off from a job you have been working in for over 10 years. This is because you are still updated with current trends, causing a higher advantage in finding a job again.

2. Interview yourself. Some individuals write amazing resumes and have great portfolios but are not successful at their interview. Having all three successful assets (great portfolio, resume and interview) will cause a better advantage of receiving a job.

Did not participate for Nicole DiFilippo's visit!

Nicole DiFilippo attended as a guest speaker who works at 

Sheridan College. Nicole is involved with Sheridan's

Athletic Therapy Program and Clinic. 

Carpal tunnel, back stress, posture, eye strain, are all 

problems we suffer in many job occupation, but most of all, 

within the media industry.

Sheridan College offers a health care coverage. To find out more 

information about the health coverage, go to www.ihaveaplan.ca

There are various health packages you can chose from, 

which are all beneficial.

Interactive Studios 2009

Day 1 Presenters:

1. Amoeba Corporation: www.amoebacorp.com/

2. Blast Radius: www.blastradius.com/

3. Grip Limited: www.griplimited.com/

4. Idea Couture: www.ideacouture.com/

5. Henderson Bas: www.theniceagency.com/

6. John Street: www.johnst.com/

7. Mighty: www.mighty.ca/

8. NFB: www.nfb.ca/

9. NuRun: www.nurun.com/

10. Oddly Studios: www.oddlystudios.com/

11. Organic: www.organic.com/

12. Sapient: www.sapient.com/

13. Taxi: www.taxi.ca/

14. MacLaren McCann: www.maclaren.com/

15. Lamin Martin: www.laminmartin.com/

16. Pixel Gallery: www.pixelgallery.org/

Day 2 Presenters:

1. WIDEawake Liberty Studios: www.wideawakeliberty.com/

2. Digital Cement: www.digitalcement.com/

3. Espresso: www.brandinfiltration.com/

4. Jam3 Media: www.jam3media.com/

5. One Method: www.onemethod.com/

6. Teehan+Lax: www.onemethod.com/

7. The Marketing Store: www.themarketingstore.com/

8. Soci Media: www.socimedia.com/

9. Ubisoft: www.ubi.com/

10. Trapeze: www.trapeze.com/

11. TBWAI: www.tbwa.com/

Lamin Martin:

I really enjoyed listening to one of the speakers called, Lamin Martin (day 1).

He provided us with good links as a good start in promoting yourself as a freelancer.

1. www.guerillaprinting.ca/

2. www.deviantart.com/

3. www.conceptart.org/

4. www.behance.net/

5. www.imaginefx.com/

6. www.cgsociety.org/

7. www.zazzle.com/

8. www.mailchimp.com/

9. www.wufoo.com/

Trapeze’s Presentation was interesting as well. The presenter stressed on 10 factors in how to be a successful media employee who will make customers care for brands:

1. Cultural Latency: speed, response, resistance draped because you have to respond quickly, not only push strategy.

2. Social media is everywhere

3. Chips are cheaper than ever, therefore, more advanced and powerful technology we can use to get our job done

4. Ubiquity of bandwidth: wireless

5. Clouds: clusters of servers/computers connected to data

6.Context is king: experiences within genre, nothing unrelated to a specific topic

7. Be relevant/useful

8. Everybody is a producer of content

9. NUI: hand interaction, eye tracking

10. We will all have jobs if we are engaged users

Other links:

http://foundationstudio.ca/

Tehan+Lax’s extra webpage they created: www.imgspark.com/

http://www.indiemoviesonline.com//

All in all, I believe you can not separate marking from art/media/design if you want to be a successful media individual. They both intertwine together now.

Furthermore, media is becoming more of a developing field than before, due to many codes and scripts, creating technical masterpieces.