VCU Brandcenter Week on MC continues with Michelle Smith. Every once in a while, you see something so brilliant in a portfolio that it stops you in your tracks. Michelle’s Slim Jim car visor meat clips are in that category. They’re the perfect combination of cheap tchotchke, useful everyday tool, in-your-face branding—and they’re just so Slim Jim. Delish.
Portfolio: michellelottsmith.com
VCU Brandcenter Week on MC kicks off with Stephen Socket. As usual, MC is blown away by the CW books coming out of VCU—and Stephen’s is a great example of why. He’s got four ad campaigns for Megabus, Timex, Michaels, and Playstation VR. He’s also got a digital magazine and video about ham (above, Ham Manual), an animated short film (that he animated), a product (bottled coffee), and a kids book “Why Is Everyone Murdering Me?” And that doesn’t include his Other Projects page. How do you get better? You make stuff make stuff make stuff.
Portfolio: stephenshocket.com
James is a copywriter at Capital One in Richmond, VA, and a graduate of VCU. While he’s new to copywriting, he’s not new to writing and has an interesting portfolio to show for it. Biking to messenger bags, outdoor gear to Sink/Swim Press, there’s a super cool/alternative POV that runs through his site and his projects. Love to see someone doing it different.
Portfolio: jamesmoffitt.carbonmade.com
Casey is a copywriter in San Diego, previously at Piston, after graduating from VCU. One of MC’s favorite things about being a copywriter is the crazy variety of subjects you get to immerse yourself in, for a week or a month or a year, in order to write for this or that. Casey’s portfolio features a car buying site, NFL team, probiotics beverage, Pride parade, and online movie promotions (including the LEGO movie, above). Good times.
Portfolio: caseybredl.com
For everyone not able to attend VCU’s recruiter sessions this week, MC is honored to present the portfolio sites of 24 VCU Brandcenter copywriters graduating May 9th, 2015 (in alphabetical order):
Sue Attalah – sueattalah.com
Richard Beahm – richardbeahm.com
Curt Chapkowski – curtchapkowski.com
Andrew Couch – johnandrewcouch.com
Elizabeth Daniel – elizabethdaniel.info
Emma Dou – emmadou.com
Patrick Farrell – patrickbfarrell.com
James Feess – jamesfeess.com
Nick Gelbard – nickgelbard.com
Patrick Girts – patrickgirts.com
Joe Hartley – joehartley.pizza
Andy Holdeman – andymightsave.us
Sarah Johnston – sarahejohnston.com
Melanie Matlock – melaniematlock.com
Conor McCann – conordrummmccann.com
Mike McGuire – michaelkmcguire.com
Alison Murphy – amurph.com
Ryan Niland – ryanniland.com
Dorado Quick – doradoquickwrites.com
Nick Roberston – bnrobertson.com
Neeruj Sethi – neerujsethi.com
Ryan Snyder – rysny.com
Jesse Stanton – jessestanton.com
Madeleine Trebenski – madeleinetrebenski.com
What’s better than clicking through a portfolio and laughing out loud? Above is a photo of Patrick that, according to his About Girts page, he hates. (Now immortalized on MC, you’re welcome!) Loving all of the VCU portfolio site About Us pages, BTW. Good stuff. Also, don’t miss Patrick’s campaign for Black Flag Bug Zappers (“The last thing that went through his head … was one of his legs.”). And his Character Demo Reel in Voice Work. Awesome.
Portfolio: patrickgirts.com
One of the great things about clicking through VCU student books is that you never know what you’re gonna find. Joe’s got under-label fold-out stories for Hellmann’s (above), taxi tops for Greyhound, funky video for Airwick, and the Patbenetaur—you’ll just have to find that one for yourself. Can’t wait to see where Joe lands after graduation.
Portfolio: joehartley.pizza
No two copywriters become copywriters the same way. Check out Emma’s “Life Highlights” page and you’ll learn that she started in Nanjing, China, moved to Vancouver, Canada, undergrad at University of British Columbia, summer dishwasher in Osaka, Japan, then three novels, The Great Wall, Popeye’s Chicken, Empire State Building, VCU Brandcenter, and here we are today. Ta-da!
Portfolio: emmadou.com
VCU Brandcenter Week 2015 kicks off with Maddy Trebenski. The awesome thing about student portfolios is that they’re, well, student portfolios. You can do anything, for any client. Maddy’s got stop-motion videos for Tim Hortons, a game for Twirl-A-Squirrel (OMG buying one immediately), packaging for Happy Socks, creepy ear love for Sennheiser, and other weird stuff including a seance with a Pretty Pony from Dollar Tree (above). As it should be.
Portfolio: madeleinetrebenski.com
Stephen is a copywriter/CD at Ogilvy in NYC. Since his last post on MC (06.15.10), he moved to Ogilvy from Gotham and added a bunch of new work to his site—including the web series “Always Open” for Denny’s (above, from Gotham) with Dave Koechner, featuring comedians like Will Arnett, Amy Poehler and Sarah Silverman. Dig it.
Portfolio: stephenlundberg.com
Ladies and gentlemen, MC is honored to present the portfolio sites of the 2014 VCU Brandcenter graduating copywriters (in alphabetical order):
Sam Bauer – sambauercw.com
Karen Bolipata – karenbolipata.com
Jimmy Burton – jimmyburton.com
Ally Farrish – allyfarrish.com
Peter Henningsen – peterhenningsen.com
Katie Johnston – katierjohnston.com
Blakeley Jones – blakeleyjones.com
Demian Kendall – demiankendall.com
Chase Kimball – clkimball.com
Nicole Lague – nicolelague.com
Liz Loudy – lizloudy.com
Samson Madella – samsonmadella.com
Steve Nass – stevenjnass.com
Trong Nguyen – tronghnguyen.com
Hunter Pinnell – hpinnell.com
Erin Ridgeway – erinridgeway.com
Garrick Sheldon – garricksheldon.com
Gabe Sherman – meetgabesherman.com
Colleen Trachy – colleentrachy.com
Jimmy’s Divorce-A-Ments project begins with this simple introduction: “A lot of things change after your parents get divorced. One of those things is Christmas.” Amen, brother. MC is guessing we’ll see some form of these in Urban Outfitters around November/December.
Portfolio: jimmyburton.com
Samson is from South India, where from 2002 through 2012 he was a professional bass player, church elder, missionary, guitar player, songwriter, clinician, proofreader, gofer, report writer, activist, publicist, singer, change agent, band manager, hotel lobby musician, content writer, and social justice advocate. Today, he is a new copywriter grad from VCU Brandcenter, and his site features projects represented by electric guitar pedals. Excellent.
Portfolio: samsonmadella.com
You know what’s funny? Listening to people annunciate when they’ve got a cold. It’s just stupid funny. Ally’s campaign for Afrin features a Google Translate language setting for Congested (sponsored) that turns ordinary sentences into their stuffed-up equivalent. Afrin needs to do that.
Portfolio: allyfarrish.com
VCU Brandcenter Week 2014 kicks off with Mr. Garrick Sheldon. Part of the fun of putting together a student book is that you not only get to go crazy creative with the work, but also with clients/projects. Garrick’s Monsanto campaign “In search of solutions, not popularity” flips the finger at protesters in the name solving world hunger. His Gas-X campaign “Focus” is a series of short documentaries about people who need less distractions on the job—female and male strippers is the first (above), bomb technicians will be the second. His LegalZoom.com campaign “Garage, Inc.” is about connecting entrepreneurs with investors who are willing to invest workspace. Dig it.
Portfolio: garricksheldon.com
Keat is a senior copywriter at Free Agents in Richmond, VA, and an adjunct instructor at VCU. Awesome to see portfolios come in from long-time Richmond creatives. (Big-ups, Keat.) Such a strong community there, led by Martin and VCU. Dig it. More, please!
Portfolio: keatpowell.com/
Brandon is a senior copywriter at Arnold Boston. He went to U of Texas plus VCU, then onto McKinney, Crispin and now, Arnold. (Nice.) Lots of killer work on his site for brands like Coke Zero, Domino’s Pizza, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Under Armor. Good stuff.
Portfolio: cargocollective.com/bwillingham
Ladies and gentlemen, MC is honored to present the portfolio sites of the 2013 VCU Brandcenter graduating copywriters (in alphabetical order):
Adam Tetreault: adamdtetreault.com
Andrew Kong: andrewckong.com
Atain Ibia: atain.me
Chris Martin: notthatchrismartin.com
Christina Semak: christinasemak.com
Daniel Chen: thedanielchen.com
Don Principe: thedonprincipe.com
Evelynne Scholnick: evelynnes.com
Faye Ibars: fayeibars.com
Gary Baker: andthenithought.com
Ian Downey: upsidedowney.com
Kai Neddersen: kaineddersen.com
Katlyn Williams: katlynwilliams.com
Maddison Bradley: maddisonbradley.com
Mary Gross: maryfgross.com
Matt Meszaros: mattmeszaros.com
Matt Skibiak: mattskibiak.com
Megan Winterhalter: meganwinterhalter.com
Michelle Lamont: michellelamont.com
Taylor Schumaker: taylorschumaker.com
Zac Milner: zacmilner.com
So hard to pick which VCU CW grad portfolios to feature during VCU Brandcenter Week! They’ve all got something special about them. Don’t miss Andrew’s Botot radio (the world’s first toothpaste, created for King Louis XV, who knew?), and Shun Cutlery campaign (Honor Haiku, funny). Nice to see some creativity in brand/client selection. Good times.
Portfolio: andrewckong.com
VCU Brandcenter Week Tuesday: Mr. Daniel Chen. Lots of fun writing all over his site, including a type solution campaign for Wonderbra (not kidding) and Sad Children’s Projects, which really is one of the saddest things MC has ever seen in a portfolio. Macaroni WE CAN’T AFFORD THIS and homemade 3RD FAVORITE SON medal. Yes.
Portfolio: thedanielchen.com
VCU Brandcenter Week! Love it. And Kai is a perfect start to the week. He was an intern copywriter at inHouse, Target’s fabulous internal creative department, back in 2010, when MC was a Creative Manager there. Kai could have probably gone right from that internship into a job, but instead decided that he wanted to learn more. He didn’t just want a good first job, he wanted a great first job, and he recognized that what he needed to get it was, well, VCU. Now, couple of years later, here he is, graduating from VCU, and that’s crazy awesome. Congrats, Kai!
Portfolio: kaineddersen.com
Steve is a copywriter/CD in NYC. He shares a site with AD/CD Jerome Marucci (who submitted it to MC, thanks man), and holy smokes it’s a great one. Google, Monster.com, BBC World News, FedEx, G4TV, Guinness, Virgin Mobile, ESPN, and it goes on. Just amazing work, all the way through. Love it.
Portfolio: butterandjerome.com
Scott is a senior copywriter at VITRO in San Diego. Know what makes MC happy? Flipping through a portfolio and seeing killer writing all over the place. Long copy writing. Pages and pages of it. Because that means someone was doing some writing, and selling some writing, and buying some writing, and producing some writing. Which makes MC happy. And that’s a good way to start a Friday.
Portfolio: scojomojo.com
Ladies and gentlemen, MC is honored to present the portfolio sites of the 2012 VCU Brandcenter graduating copywriters (in alphabetical order):
Daniel Aguinaga: danielaguinaga.com
David Ashton: davidjashton.com
Christopher Brotzman: chrisbrotzman.com
Phil Clockers: phil.clockers.org
Lonnie Elliott: lonnieelliott.com
Matt Garcia: cargocollective.com/rmattgarcia
Craig Gerringer: cargocollective.com/cgerringer
Bri Hand: secrethidingplaceofbrihand.com
Bryce Isaacson: bryceisaacson.com
Alina Karabaich: karabaich.com
Patrick Kraft: patrickkraft.com
Alex Ledford: alexledford.com
Yahkeema Moffitt: yahkeema.com
Mariana Oliveira: heymar.com
Nick Park: cargocollective.com/nickpark
Brandon Poole: bpoole.com
Johnathan Ranson: iamjonransom.com
Whitney Ruef: whitneyruef.com
David Satterfield: david-satterfield.com
Ben Schneider: schneiderben.com
Chris Sheldon: crsheldon.com
Scott Thomasch: cargocollective.com/LostBoy
Jeff Vitkun: jeffvitkun.com
Tedd Wood: teddwood.org
What do CDs and recruiters look for in a graduating CW’s portfolio? Well, for starters, work that looks like someone had fun making it. Whitney’s definitely falls into that category. In addition to ads, she’s got Greeting Cards for Cardless Occasions, Depressed Copywriter submissions, and Horsewarming—a relaunch of Digital Kitchen. Awesome.
Portfolio: whitneyruef.com
MC is a fan of funny. If you can write funny and smart, there’s at least a 51% chance you’ll make it as a copywriter. Craig can write it funny. Check out his Jack Handy-esque campaign for Bigelow Tea (above). And there are good times all up and down his site. Including a Movember vid. Which is just. I mean.
Portfolio: http://cargocollective.com/cgerringer
There are copywriters. And there are writer/copywriters. Lonnie is the latter. His ‘Preamble’ taken directly from his site: “Fact: Dyson vacuums use the same plastic as riot shields. I’ve never understood writers who work best by distancing themselves from the details of a product. For me, the opposite is true. Knowledge fuels my creative thinking. Working on a problem is like a game of chess. It only takes a few pieces to checkmate the king, but I never know which ones until I start playing. The Dyson fact above remains my favorite crumb of information found while researching a campaign. It was later abandoned, like many others, for lacking the relevancy to become an ad. Such is the process. And for many reasons, why I love it.”
Portfolio: lonnieelliott.com
VCU Brandcenter Week 2012 kicks off with The Secret Hiding Place of Bri Hand. So much to love in her book. Be sure to check out Google Search Stories, a project she did while interning at Google Creative Labs. Awesome.
Portfolio: secrethidingplaceofbrihand.com
Joel is a senior copywriter at Integer in Denver. Don’t misses: CAT, Hooked On Phonics and NatureMade (print), falling snowflakes for Big Bear (TV), and an executive meltdown for Cisco (interactive).
Portfolio: joelmaron.com
Bill is a copywriter/CD in Portland. His portfolio is loaded with awesome campaigns (and a killer one-shot for VW), including some great pro-bono work, which MC loves. Don’t miss the Jack in the Box spot with Jack at his in-laws. Hilarious. So been there.
Portfolio: billhollister.net