A new start
So after about 14 years of hand-coding my personal website (the most current one would be apsylus.com), all while developing and working with various CMS'es professionally, I've decided to re-start my online existence with WordPress.
Why? Because these blogging and CMS platforms are becoming so much better and easier to use by the minute, that hand coding a personal website is going the way of the dodo. Another reason is that this will entice me to update the site a little more than once a year. Also because everyone blogs nowadays, and I feel slightly inadequate for only having an online journal, a LiveJournal, and accounts on Twitter and Facebook - because no matter what you do or how much you know, unless you have an ACTUAL blog, you're a nobody on the web. That or I have just gotten suckered into blogging (very likely).
Anyway - welcome! Please read the About page for what the site's all about, leave a comment, and we'll talk soon.
Kellogg Fall Ball 2008
I was asked to do the branding, logo design, and marketing materials for the Kellogg Annual Fall Ball 2008. The theme for the ball was "masquerade". Since it was to be held at Chicago's fancy Navy Pier Crystal Garden, the marketing material had to convey an upscale and dressy theme (one big problem with Kellogg formals is that when it comes to costumes, people like to be creative - sometimes too creative. We did not want anybody coming in with jeans and a pirate mask).
Kellogg Technology Conference 2009
This was easily my biggest project while at Kellogg. As the Marketing Co-chair, I was responsible for everything involving marketing the conference - it was my job to sell the conference out as quickly as possible. Starting with the logo (which is different from the past years' Kellogg Technology Conference logos), I created the visual branding of the conference.
More importantly, I thought of various ways of driving demand for the conference - this included crafting different waves of marketing campaigns (increasing awareness first, then generating excitement, then driving purchases), and tailoring the messages differently depending on the market segment I was addressing.
There were also smaller things like pushing the brand out even when the conference was full to drive additional demand and excitement, as well as reduce "empty" sales - so people who purchased tickets for the conference but could not make it would be replaced by those waitlisted and likely extremely excited about attending.
The conference ended up selling out two weeks prior to the actual conference day, which was unheard of for the Technology Conference at Kellogg. It was amazing to see how what I learned actually made a difference - I think I applied more of what I learned about marketing at Kellogg on this than any other project I've done!
Rocket Pockets
Rocket Pockets is Kellogg's pop and rock band, of which I may or may not be a groupie. They had a few photos taken for their promotional material, and I created this poster out of the photo they picked.
MarkStrat love
Before you go, "What the hell is a Vodite?", I will explain: MarkStrat is a simulation program that is used by MBA students worldwide to learn about marketing strategy (hence, MarkStrat). There are two products that you can market on the simulation: Sonites and Vodites. They are purely fictitious, but after 10 weeks of gruelling sessions of marketing decisions on the products, they become as real as a pack of macaroni and cheese.
I created the above graphic for the t-shirts my team wore for the final presentation. Obviously, this was more love to the program than most students had by this point!
Update: I've had a few people ask me about the t-shirt and if they could order it. I had the t-shirts made through Zazzle, so if you want you can get one of your own. You can even put the graphic on a different t-shirt if you like.