Always good to start the semester with a good intro to Brand Experience – and what better way than with a ‘Self-Branding’ assignment. As always, students are trying to create a beautiful, tactile branded resume package with the intention of it landing on the desk of an individual creative head for a potential internship position.
Continue reading “Resume ‘Experience’”As always, great fun creating the promotional piece for the latest theatre production – Silent Sky.
THE STORY OF STELLAR WOMEN WHO MADE ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES
Bradley University Theatre proudly opens its spring season with Silent Sky, Lauren Gunderson’s, acclaimed play about Henrietta Leavitt, the early 20th-century astronomer whose discoveries forever changed the way that we understand the universe.
Henrietta Leavitt, invited to join a staff of women “computers” at the Harvard Observatory, left her home and family in Wisconsin and distinguished herself in the shadow of male superiors who not only forbade her to touch a telescope but often took credit for her pioneering work. At a time when the Milky Way was commonly believed to comprise the entire universe, Leavitt and her female colleagues studied photographic plates of the stars, laboriously cataloguing them, calculating luminosity and searching for patterns. Leavitt’s unwavering examination of blinking stars, or Cepheids, led her to discover that light could be used to determine the distance and size of the stars in our galaxy—and tell us not only that the universe is infinitely larger than we believed, but also exactly where in its vast reaches we live. These crucial discoveries provided the foundation for the work of later, better-known astronomers, including Edwin Hubble.
Class done, almost packed for the return to snowy Peoria. One last place to visit – it had to be the Warner Brothers studio tour. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter it’s a must, and even if you’re not, the exhibits are breathtaking. So, despite a freezing cold start to the day due to the bus taking us being over half an hour late, and an equally ‘challenging’ return journey back into London – we had an amazing time.
And so, January 2019, yet another great class in London. My students were amazing (as always), and the Study Abroad program at Bradley continues to run the most well oiled ship you could imagine. Until the next time!
Final meeting at a London based branding company was also the one the students were pitching their ideas for the team brief. Their task was to take Gregg’s bakery and the national institution – the sausage roll – to a US market. A really fun challenge that required a lot of ‘product confrontation (eating Gregg’s sausage rolls basically!)
Trying to keep the balance between delivering an upper level course in just two and a half weeks and allowing the students to experience the amazing sights and sounds of London is a tricky one. But however hard it may be – there is always room for a trip to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub!!!
Wikipedia:
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of a number of pubs in London to have been rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666. There has been a pub at this location since 1538. Some of the interior wood paneling is nineteenth century, some older, perhaps original. The vaulted cellars are thought to belong to a 13th-century Carmelite monastery which once occupied the site. The entrance to this pub is situated in a narrow alleyway and is very unassuming, yet once inside visitors will realize that the pub occupies a lot of floor space and has numerous bars and gloomy rooms. In winter, open fireplaces are used to keep the interior warm. In the bar room are posted plaques showing famous people who were regulars, including no other than Charles Dickens himself.
Once again we were extremely fortunate to visit a branding company who were happy to give up a few hours of their time to talk to us about their own creative process and show us their work. I can’t thank Vicki and everyone at jkr enough for a great afternoon.
Couldn’t resist taking a photograph of this insane restroom!
Not only where the people of Storm Brands kind enough to talk us through their creative process – but they also found the time to review the students projects. Ewan and Co., thank you so much!
