Tenleymayfield’s Weblog

Over the past few weeks this project has been a challenging quest to find out how I want people to perceive me through my photographs and design. The first part of the project, I had to ask people to give me three words that they think describe me. That was a challenge in itself because I have never had to ask people what they think about me nor have I ever really cared. The responses that were given to me were not as hard to handle as I thought they would be. This project enabled me to search many different paper types, fonts, and examples of business cards that I would not normally look at. I feel that I researched more for this project than I had in others because it was about me. Throughout all the rough stages, I struggled. It seemed as though over night I figured out what I really wanted to see as a final product. Overall, this project has been a fun way to end the semester with something that will benefit us as student instead of completing something for a client.

As a college student, I take advantage of what other college campuses are capable of. I recently visited Chattanooga State’s printing facilities. One aspect of their services that I was interested in was the press. It was neat to see the ink be mixed and applied to the press. The pressman painted the ink on the roller that was exposed to light and air when it was running low. The perforator, scorer, and folder was even more interesting to me. The machine was not extremely big, and yet it could score twice and fold twice in a matter of seconds. In a blink of an eye, a piece of paper was sent through the runners and ready to distribute. Overall, this trip was fun and educational. 

When this project was first assigned I was skeptical because I have never been a huge fan of working in groups. Once the group assignments were given out I was relieved. I was hoping to be placed in a group that has similar drive and work ethic. After finding out what types of groups there would be, I was thinking that I would really enjoy being on the event team because I do similar work for a living. When I found out that I was on the brochure team, I decided that it would be a different change of pace for me. At first, it seemed that the brochure team got off to a slow start. Taking into consideration that every member of the group had to get a feel for what every one wanted to accomplish, that pace picked up.

The Take Root project proposed a great opportunity for everyone in our group to meet business owners and entrepreneurs in Chattanooga. Our group was able to talk to various printers, t-shirt companies and paper companies. Each one of these vendors was different enough that we were all able to introduce ourselves and figure out what each company was capable of. Regarding the t-shirts, this was the first time I have ever had an issue with the final product. I was able to send an email thanking the company while also having to let them know about the issue that we found with the shirts.

Once we were ready to pick up the final products of everything that we had been working on for seven weeks, I was excited. It was a relief to know that we were finished and could start working on a new project, but it was also exciting to see everything finished. For one class to collaborate like we did was challenging, but helped prepare us for experiences that we would be faced with in the future. 

Overall, I would definitely want to participate in a group project like this again. Working with real clients like Helen and the Leadership Chattanooga class was interesting. They did not sugar coat issues like changing the color extremely close to our deadline. They were brutally honest when they needed to be, and as a class we all understood the constructive criticism.

After participating in the project, I hope that every junior class behind us has an opportunity like this one.

I have always looked toward press releases as a way to tell readers what is going on around them. The article on writing a press release by Press Release Newswire, gives the most important guidelines for writing a release. After reading the article, I feel that there are two guidelines, which can hurt a press release. The first is if your press release is only a few sentences then it might not be a worthy item for your readers. The second tip is that when writing a press release, you should make sure that you have addresses the W’s (who, what, when, where, and why.) Overall, this release was extremely informing, especially for someone who has never written a press release before.

Review I:

After reading the first seventy pages in “The Brand Gap”, there was one quote that stood out the most to me. In the section of Globalism vs. Tribalism, there is an excerpt that states, “Brands are the little gods of modern life, each ruling a different need, activity, mood, or situation.” After reading this section, the idea of a brand creating a tribe is conveyed throughout this whole section.  The combination of truth and humor throughout the book make for a very intriguing read. I feel that the information that I have read so far, is put together in a way that makes the idea of brands more interesting. Once you start reading this book, it is extremely hard to stop, or even take a break from it.  I really enjoyed reading about the real life scenarios throughout the book because they are not sugar coated like others.

Review II:

“The Brand Gap” is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I have often found that mid-way through a book I become bored, but not in this one. One particular aspect of this book that I really enjoyed is the fact that the author keeps touching on the point that, “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.” The words logo, brand, trademark and copyright can all be misinterpreted for one or the other. This book makes sure that when the reader is finished they have a distinct knowledge of what a Brand actually is.