Most people follow up their name with their chosen skill- copywriter, art director, strategist, etc. That was boring and said nothing about ME- or my individuality. It actually puts us in a great big pool, where all the fish that look alike are grouped together in different schools. How do you distinguish yourself from the fish to your left and right?

That’s why I gave myself a tagline: “Not-just-a-Copywriter“

First and foremost, I am a writer. But who I am doesn’t stop there. When people ask me what I am, I quickly blurt out “copywriter” and almost immediately follow up with “but I’m also…”

I hate limiting myself to one thing. Which means my character flaw is this: I desperately want people to know that I love to explore and be proficient in other interests. It means that everyone should know I am a relentless and life-long student. I suppose if that’s my only vice, then I’ll gladly own it.

You only get one a few seconds to tell people who you are.

You only get a few seconds to convince the bigger fish that you’re too valuable to be eaten.

Where did it start?

Well, I used to make character pictures for people who played “message board rpgs.” Basically, a bunch of people created characters and would write their actions/thoughts/feelings, much like a writer would do in a novel. They would respond to each other’s characters to carry out plots and story lines. Usually each post was identified with the character’s picture and name. I decided that I wanted to be one of the artists that would capture that character’s personality and make a unique picture for them.

These images are where my photo-manipulation obsession started:

(they’re blurry because it’s been so long that I can’t find the original images)

‘

It’s a little weird, but I had to start somewhere.

The final image is usually comprised of anywhere from 5-20 images.
For charge, there are 3 main images, with about 10 secondary images for added effect.

Unfortunately, that term has since adapted to the digital space. Instead of taking apart an old toy or building something strange out of legos, now I’m tinkering with digital things. Like After Effects and typography videos.

Final Product:

First Go:

Lesson learned?

Plan more than you think you have to. The first round of planning will never be enough.

The visual process of making my logo:

After five pages of sketches, dozens of mockups that didn’t work, and dozens of birds to pick from,
I finally I have a logo.

KAW is my monogram. (Katlyn Alexandra Williams)

I remember in elementary school when a classmate burst out laughing because my monogram was the sound a crow made. According to him, it wasn’t anything cool. My only rebuttal at the teasing was that it was spelled “caw” not “kaw”. (Of course, I thought of something better I could have said later.) Irregardless, the mark on my childhood was made. Thanks kid-who’s-name-I-don’t-remember, while you may have meant it in teasing I choose instead to embrace it.

Ok, so they’re opportunists when it comes to their food. (I prefer the term opportunist over scavenger.) You’ll learn to overlook that when you see exactly how amazing they are: 

1. They are ridiculously SMART birds. They create and use tools to get what they want. Seriously, caveman-level tools. Next they’ll be discovering fire.  Someone taught a few at a sports stadium to clean up the trash in exchange for coins they can use in a crow-food vending machine.

2. They’re absolutely and completely FEARLESS. They attack eagles. Not just regular ol’ golden eagles either, but big and fierce bald eagles. That’s like a tiny, unknown island trying to conquer the U.S. and winning.

3. They have excellent MEMORY. We need phone apps to help us find our cars, or keys, and a myriad of other things. Oh, and they can also remember your face and they’ll never forget it.  He’ll even tell his friends and babies to remember you. If you mess with a crow, you can expect a Hatfield and McCoy style feud featuring dive-bombing, rock-dropping, and incessant cawing. From-the-entire-crow-flock.

4. They can perform MAGIC TRICKS. Crows are smart enough to store food away for destitute times. They also know that other crows might steal it. If they see another crow watching, they’ll pretend to store the piece of food while actually hiding it away beneath their feathers. The watching crow will sometimes even suspect the trickery, and continue to follow the sly food-storing crow.

5. Crows are FAST LEARNERS. They are capable of calculating the correct drop height to crack a nut open. Some have adapted to city life and have learned to drop the nuts on the road for car tires to crack. Then, they know towait until the red light before going to retrieve it. (Do I need to mention they’re patient?)

6. Crows are PROBLEM SOLVERS. Just watch this video starting from 0:15: http://www.wimp.com/incrediblecrows/

7. They perform EXPERIMENTS. If they want something, they’ll try every possible way to get it. Scientists call them “feathered apes” because of how well they achieve their goal one way or another.

8. They are expert COMMUNICATORS. Other than mimicking human voices, speaking English, and developing their own language of “caws”, they somehow find the time to recite opera on the side. Parrots are airheads in comparison.

The white crow meets all of that criteria, but more importantly it stands out from all the other smart crows. It’s unique and permanently so. Each post on this blog will represent the qualities of the amazing crow and have the uniqueness of the white crow.

Still don’t believe me?

http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think_p2.html

http://azweird.com/nature/interesting_facts_about_crows-739.html

This board is tough enough to take riders on any body of water.
Insight: Whether it’s a shallow river, open ocean, city canal or any other body of water,
this board helps you ride your curiosity unchallenged.

Tag:

The next two print ads were geared more towards the surf shop owner, who ultimately chose whether or not to stock these boards. Rather than relaying the personal journey of curiosity, they speak more to the curiosity that created this ultimate board.

The paddle-boarder loves to tell the stories of his or her travels. At the end of the day, they gather around the campfire on the beach and regale each other on the breath-taking things they experienced. They exchange the destinations they’ve been to and recommendations on what to see on the way.

We created an outlet for this, a microsite called ADRIFT:

On the Explore tab, they can find routes that have been taken by other paddle boarders,
who leave recommendations on how to do it, where to stop for breaks, and sights to see.

On the Create tab, this is where they document their own journey so that others can experience the same curiosity.

And on the Journal tab, the explorer has a private way to document their curiosity driven journey.
The main page of the journal shows stats from all the collected rides.

Cohort:
AD: Parker Bell

What is Scentsy?

This company sells flameless candles with hundreds of scent choices. The scent comes in the form of a wax that is heated by a low-watt bulb in their signature warmer. The wax never gets hot enough to burn. This makes changing the wax incredibly easy- just a few seconds to pour one out and add another.

The Problem?

Choosing a wax scent is a little difficult. You can’t just run off to the store to smell one. Like Avon or Pampered Chef, they only use consultants to make sales. While the scents are listed on the website, you can’t smell the internet.

Goal:

Arm the consultants with powerful tools to boost up their sales.

Scratch and Sniff Direct Mail Booklets: 

#1: Consultants can send these to their known customers so they can “sample” the new scents in between Scentsy parties.
#2: Scentsy can use this to gain more awareness by sending it to regions that they haven’t permeated yet.

Booklets shown below as clickable slideshows.

[[Show as slideshow]]

[[Show as slideshow]]

[[Show as slideshow]]

[[Show as slideshow]]

[[Show as slideshow]]

Banner ads will be targeted at people looking for scent products, and it keeps Scentsy top of mind in the scent category.

In the journey to find the perfect scent, they are directed to the Scent Guru website.
The site helps them find the best scents for the moods they want to set.

Choose a category, a mood, and find the scent recommendations:

To aggregate the recommendations on scent, Scent Guru pulls the information from social website:

Right now, the Scentsy brand is secluded to the home and the car. We brought it into businesses.
The product innovation we created was a large, jar-like warmer that can hold up to 3 different scent waxes.
Pushing one of the round buttons on the jar triggers a lightbulb to turn on and start heating the chosen scent.

Cohort:

AD: Kelsie Clegg