Final Weeks

This is another short day for me at the Esente office, and actually a short week in general as I have finals Wednesday and Thursday this week. Wish me luck! Next week will also be a short week, as the final days of the internship are nearing.

Today I jumped right into leads for OnPoint Media. I was given several lists in Concord, MA to scour for potential clients. In total I was able to find 47 today. I must say, the last few days of me collecting have been considerably well in terms of numbers. This doesn’t always happen, but the last three or four days, my numbers have been “up there”.

As I mentioned, next week on Tuesday, I believe, is the last day of the internship. It’s been an incredible experience here and unfortunately it has to come to an end. I have learned so much during my time here and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I learned a lot about the music industry and other industries as well that I didn’t know prior to my internship. I’ve gained incredible insight into the music business, and business in general. It’s been such an amazing opportunity to have gained this experience and work with some incredible people as well. Once the internship finally comes to an end next week, it’ll feel a little weird, as I’ve been here four days a week for the last four months. Overall, my time at Esente has taught me a lot and taught me well.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Fully Rested

Yesterday was my last day of class in my junior year of college! Wa-hoo! So ultimately, that meant I got to sleep in today instead of going to my 3 hour Form/Design class. I actually feel refreshed and fully rested after an intense year. My body doesn't hurt like it usually does, probably because I passed out at 8 last night and slept til 10 this morning. It feels good to be rested..for once.

Today I'm in the Esente office for several hours, until 5. Currently I'm looking for more potential clientele for OnPoint Media. I've been working on one list for about three days, only because there are about 600 businesses listed under it.  But the upside to this, is that there are many companies and businesses who actually have websites or Facebook for us to contact them. My numbers have been pretty good the last week or so, as they've been in the 40-50 range on average each day. This definitely makes it worthwhile, when you can see a list building right before your eyes. It keeps you motivated to keep going to, unlike when you find very few and become somewhat discouraged.

Once I finish conducting leads for the day, I plan on working on the fan art for Jayna Lininger I started the other day when I was here. I have a pretty good amount of it done, although it is relatively simple. I believe I had mentioned that I was going to incorporate one of her original songs into the design. So far it's coming out pretty good, but there are some more changes and additions that need to be worked out.

I also would like to put the finishing touches on several of the promotional graphics that I had been working on. All four are basically finished, but I just need to tweak a few things before I will call the complete. I'm quite satisfied in the way they all came out, so hopefully others will like them as well.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Exhaustion

Thankfully today is one of my short days here at the office, considering I was up until three this morning finishing some designs for an electronic illustration class I've been taking. And later finishing a paper into the early hours of Wednesday morning. I've gotten about twelves hours of sleep over the past three nights, so I'm pretty exhausted. My body doesn't want to move, to work, to keep going. Luckily, today was my last day of classes so I can sleep in tomorrow and hopefully restore my body back to tip-top shape.

Yesterday while I was here I was cranking out leads as fast as possible. I've been trying to challenge myself to find more leads each day, in roughly the same amount of time. Yesterday was a pretty good day, my numbers were in the lower 40's. Today I'm not sure how many I've collected to far, but the number should be exceeding 30 or 40 today.

After a lunch break and after I completed the leads for OnPoint Media, I was working on some posts for several of the blogs that they run. I summarized three articles in total. One on drunk driving, another on bullying and the third one business related ideas. It wasn't too bad, I feel like I go overboard writing sometimes. But it's better to have more than not enough.

Ideally I wanted to finish touching up some of the promotional graphics for social media usage, but instead I decided to work on some fan art for Jayna Lininger. I was browsing around her website and started listening to some of her original songs, which are incredible. I had to write down the lyrics to one of her songs, because the lyrics themselves weren't posted anywhere I could find. So I planned on using some of the lyrics and incorporate them into the fan art. I wanted to use one of her own original song as a basis for the creative direction. This essentially dictated the creative execution of the design but also it relates to Jayna on a more personal level, than say using one of the songs she has covered. I'm not finished with this just yet, but will post as soon as all is complete.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Breath Again

It's crunch time, as my junior year of college is coming to a much needed end. Today I had my last critique for a Form/Design class I've been taking. It went pretty well, not that it wouldn't have. But I received some nice feedback on my 3D representation of Picasso's "Three Musicians". I've been going insane trying to finish papers and projects. This past week or so I've been up late many nights mornings til 1, 2, 3 in the morning trying to get one thing finished, before moving to another. Anyways, tomorrow is my last day of classes, and then next week I have finals. Can't wait to have the weight off my shoulders, and take a nice deep breath for the first time in four months. Breathe.

Today I'm here at the Esente office until 5. Started right in on Internet research shortly after arriving. I finished two small lists in Saugus and now have moved onto Lexington, MA. I have an immense list of businesses to look through so I'm hoping my numbers are up there today. Fingers crossed.

Once I finish conducting leads for OnPoint I would like to refine some of the graphics that I've been working on for promotional uses. Two of them are completely finished, but the other two have minor details that I need to work out before calling them complete. Time to be productive and jump into some leads and then some design later in the day.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Road Blocks

Upon arrival of the Esente office, I began diligently working on more Internet research for OnPoint Media. Today I was searching for businesses throughout Hanson, MA. Some of the lists I was assigned include computer hardware and computer software, consumer electronics, among a few others. It wasn't the greatest day for me for leads, but I managed to scrounge up a total of 22. This was one of the least successful day for leads for me. Many of them look promising, but ultimately come up short on some vital information.

The interns and myself also began trying to find ways around certain road blocks that we came across when contacting bands for the One Night Stand. We encountered issues on both Facebook and ReverbNation and were trying to find solutions to these issues. I'm not entirely sure how we will get past these problems, but it should be interesting. As with anything, you learn the more you do something. Our reaching out to bands to perform at the One Night Stand events was no different. Hopefully we will be able to find a definitive solution to the road blocks we have come across.

I was also able to work some more on another promotional graphic for one of the blogs. Specifically, I was working on a promo graphic for The Buzz On Bullying. I retained some of the aesthetic qualities of the original blog site, but took it in my own direction. I'm not entirely finished with the graphic, but I had made some good progress in reaching completion. Below you can see what I have done so far, but changes are inevitable.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Toothpicks In My Eyes

Considering I didn't go to bed until 3 this morning, I'm pretty exhausted today and can't wait to go to bed later! I'm in need of some serious sleep action when I get out of my classes later on in the day, or I could always sleep in my classes. Never really understood how people can fall asleep in a class. Or I could always find some toothpicks to keep my eyes open for the remainder of the day. Hmm..decisions, decisions.

Anyways I arrived at the office today shortly after 9:30, after dragging myself to my 8 o'clock class this morning. I jumped right into conducting more internet research for OnPoint Media. I still actually am working on these as we speak. Started looking throughout Belmont, MA today and had several lists to look through. Today is actually another good day for leads, for myself at least. I'm not entirely sure where my numbers are at this point, but I believe I've exceeded at least 30 or so, or at least that's what I'm hoping.


As today is one of my two short days here, I haven't had time to start working on my fourth promotional graphic for the Buzz on Bullying blog. I completed 3 already so for the three other blogs, but wanted to create one for each of them. I'm still kicking ideas around my head for the creative direction of this fourth promo graphic. I have to admit it was easy coming up with an idea for the other 3 that are already completed, but this one has put up a creative road block. I was on the blog, itself, to help get inspired and draw some inspiration, but with little success. Maybe I'm over thinking things, so perhaps I should step back for a while and see where I am. Tomorrow I would like to have the new graphic half completed, or ideally completely finished. We shall see where things are tomorrow afternoon.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Learning Process

Where to begin, where to begin? Yesterday was a pretty good day overall at the office. It was, however, a horrible day for leads for myself. I was only able to gather 19 in total, which I believe is my worst number to date. What am I going to do? Move on.

Today was slightly better, I managed to find 30 all together. It becomes very tedious after researching all these different companies and just about none of them have a website or even a Facebook. What is this? Some of these businesses need to get with it and update, or create,  some page where people can find them. If they haven't noticed, the Internet is a pretty huge platform for reaching customers and other people. So it just blows my mind they don't have even a free Facebook page or some other free site. There are plenty of tools for people to utilize, I suppose it's just a matter of finding it and using it to your advantage. But I guess, some people don't have time for these things.

Anyways, yesterday we began sending out information about One Night Stand to bands in Tampa, Florida in hopes of receiving some feedback. Each of the interns had a list of bands that we were to contact via various methods including email, Facebook, and ReverbNation. Emailing the bands who had actual email addresses was pretty easy. We did run into some issues when it came to using Facebook as a platform for reaching out to these bands. Because so many of us interns were signed into the same Facebook page, we were eventually locked out as the sight thought it was spam. I believe several of us tried to make other accounts in order to send them the details of the One Night Stand. Even with ReverbNation there were some limitations that impeded our efforts. If you wanted to message the artists or bands there was a character limit (what is this Twitter?). The character limit prevented us from sending the same message to all the other bands. I'm not sure if we will end up reaching out to these bands using the same method or if another system has been suggested, but it was a learning process for all of us. 

Towards the end of the day I was able to work on some more of my promotional graphics to drive more people to the blogs. This marks two completed promo graphics! Wa-hoo! I started working on another for the Prevent Drunk Driving Now blog (progress can be seen below). It's no where near being finished but it was just some beginning stages of the development. More promo graphic updates will be coming soon. Stay tuned!

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Slight Distraction

Slightly distracted today by the nice weather outside. But I suppose there will be plenty of nice days to enjoy in the near future. As today is one of my two longer days at the office, I plan on buckling down and finishing several things today. Shortly ago, I had just started conducted my Internet research for OnPoint. This is the first task that I need to finish before jumping into another task. Today I was given a handful of different business markets to look throughout Wilmington,MA. Some of them include environmental markets, financial and furnishings. Yesterday was a pretty good day for leads, so hopefully today I can come close to reaching the same number, if not more.

Since I have more time today in the office, I plan on working on some more promotional graphics to drive traffic to some of the blogs. Two are completely finished, and I wanted to create at least two more for each of the blogs. I have some ideas swirling around my head about which creative route to take. Hopefully I don't draw a blank when I actually go to start working on the next two. I need to be productive today, in hopes of keeping the momentum going so I can finish some homework later in the night.

I have just broken the surface of my leads for the day so I better start clicking away and see how many I can get today. I will also probably post some updates on the progress of the promotional graphics.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

So I'm finishing up some of the ads I've been working on. I've made a few for the Stop Drunk Driving Now Website.

Just a few simple ads. I took a bit of inspiration from the æsthetic choices the OnPoint uses for some of the websites they design.

Like most of my work I'm trying to keep it simple without a lot of filler in the design it self. Making sure that message can be easily read before all else.

Tim Olech | Graphics Intern

Buzzin'

Yesterday was one of my two short days at the Esente office, so I didn't get much done in terms of design materials. Of course I conducted leads for at least an hour and a half. I was given several different lists to work from, which can be a godsend when you have one long list with no promising leads to enter into the spreadsheet. Yesterday I was able to collect a total of 34 leads. Today I am hoping to surpass this number. Maybe I'll see if I can make it to 50 by the hour and a half is elapsed.

I did get some of another promotional graphic started a few days ago, and made some more progress on it yesterday. However, there is still some more details that need to be worked out before I finalize the design. This promotional graphic is designed in order to draw more traffic to OnPoint Media's BizBuzz. I pretty much kept the whole idea of the buzzing/bee and incorporated it into the design. The background looks like a honeycomb, so I think it might catch peoples' eye and hopefully direct them toward the BizBuzz. There's still several pieces that need to be worked on. Today I would like to finish this promo graphic, and ideally start another one. Here's what I have completed so far.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Rockin'

 Today I started off by finishing up a list of leads from the last week. I had a page left of businesses classified under consumer services in North Andover, MA. From the remainder of this list, I was able to collect 18 in total. Not too bad. Once I finished off this list, I began researching several different business services including computer hardware and software, consumer electronics and consumer services in North Billerica. All together I have found 34 leads in total for today so far.

Last week I had begun working on some promotional graphics that will be used to drive more traffic to various blogs. I am in the middle of working on several of these graphics, however I only have one finished that is for the Rock Report. I like the way it came out, but I may play around with some of the details a little more. I'm also working on one for BizBuzz which is playing off the idea of buzzing and bees. I wanted to create these graphics with some unifying theme from the original blog or source that could be brought into these designs. My design for the Rock Report can be seen below. I will update with more graphics as soon as they are completed!

Until tomorrow.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

I finally got a nice little project to work on other than leads. I'm basically creating small ads to draw attention to the various blogs that this company publishes on. I was working on one of the ads and noticed that that logo wasn't as well formatted for being used in smaller ads. So I just reconstructed it to remove the aesthetic additions from the logo. I think it turned into a more readable logo.

Here are some of the finished ads

Tim Olech | Graphics Intern

I've been working on a few iterations of my previous poster that should come together a bit later today. I've made a short list of sites that have been known to have many cases of cyberbullying. Such websites like Youtube, Myspace, and Twitter. I've done some work already but it needs a few more tweaks till the are all done as a series. But untill then... I shall be collecting leads and people for my media lists.

Tim Olech | Graphics Intern 

5.7 Million Youths

Yesterday was quite a productive day for myself here at the Esente office, considering it was one of my two longer days. I began conducting Internet leads for OnPoint Media, like I would any other day. After about an hour and a half to two hours of research I managed to round up 36 leads for businesses filed under several different lists including, electrical, electronics, energy/resources, among several others.

Once I served my time for leads yesterday, I moved onto the list for Right Now. I continued adding school contacts into the master spread for this future event. It hasn't been too hard to find most of the contacts, but it has been troubling to find some of the police/fire department and union contacts. Anyways, it was still productive as I was able to add at least fifty or so contacts for one of the town's school systems I was assigned.

Later in the afternoon, I felt I needed a break from Internet research and felt the urge to be a little more creative. I chose to work on another poster I have been thinking about, and got a good amount of it completed. I'm still playing around with the text, the color, the positioning, the size of the text. I wanted to create something different, so I chose generic male/female symbols that create the background with a statistic on bullying as the main focal point. Here is a sample of what I have done so far, but more changes are to come.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

What's new with the graphics interns?

2/26/2013

Today, I started my day off with researching for companies in Cambridge that could become clients for On Point.  In total I collecting 45, which is my all time best since started doing leads.  Then I worked on a new poster for Anti-Bullying, creating a rope image and layout the text. It is still a rough draft and might change the image, not sure what I want though. This will be used for Becca Levy Tour for anti-bully campaign. We were given a new project to find all the contacts for Middle and High schools for towns in Massachusetts.  I collected 6 schools in Salem, MA for the day.  

-Renee Breau

Graphic Designer 

reneebreau.com

What's New with the Graphic Design Interns?

2/20/13- 

Today, I researched 25 companies for On Point media for future clients. Then I moved on to finish a Media List for all media outlet in Maine including newspapers, magazine, radio and TV, doing college as well.  In the end I collected 11 college magazines with 15 contacts for the day.  I continue to work on Anti-Bullying Poster on Esente by cropping 1 of 5 green matches to fit with the quote of one out of four is bullying.  

As a group we looked at Kickstarter to see if we could use it to get funding for concert tour with Becca Levy to promote Anti- Bullying Campaign. In the end they do not want charity projects as they want a end product, something the consumer can buy. This is what we found:

Kickstarter takes 5% of what is made

It cannot be used to fund charity projects or causes

$25 common pledge and average $71

Average project ask for 5,000

  

A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.

Examples of prohibited use include raising money for the Red Cross, funding an awareness campaign, funding a scholarship, or promoting the donation of funds raised, or future profits, to a charity or cause.

Everything on Kickstarter must also be a project. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it.

Kickstarter cannot be used as seen above. It has to be something produced and made to make it a project.

Then we went on to Music Think Tank to look at articles on crowdfunding. We split the articles up and this is what I found:

Avoid- Lack of a Purpose Worth Backing

With music Kickstarter projects, you are relying 99% on your existing personal connections.  

You need to send personal emails, engage in face-to-face communication, and tell people exactly what you need them to do.

If a backer is willing to show you their support at the $35 level but you jump from a $20 package to a $50 package, you’re loosing out on potential dollars because they’ll settle for the $20 package.

Kickstarter is more of a vehicle for you to work with your existing fans, not a platform for you to find new ones.

Promote- A large part of our success was having an army of fans, sponsors, promoters, people in the media, and especially other artists who were happy to tweet/share/post the link and encourage people do donate. 

Perks- People are willing to give more if they are able to get something exclusive, unique, fun. If you have other skills, bring them into this. Can you cook? Offer the chance for a private party and cook your fans some dinner. Can you paint? Have some rare canvas pieces. You get the idea.

Twitter- For example, I use Twitter often. For the campaign, I created a hash tag trend and posted an update every single time someone made a pledge. I looked up Twitter names of people who pledged and tagged them, began conversations about it. Fans started tweeting celebrities, actors, bands, media contacts, etc. asking them to RT our link. 

What I learned is that crowd funding success is what you put into it.  From promoting it with your connections and through social media to what you offer as perks. 

Gig funder will not work because it is for the fans and artist to connect, not a whole campaign tour. 

Matthew Leone, bass player for the Chicago based band Madina Lake wad beating after trying to save his neighbor (women) from being beating from her husband.  This inspired a fund to Matthew’s recovery.  This was done by Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. 

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.  I urge you to come and make a donation to this hero.

I learned that you not only have to have a good cause, but the cause has to do something in return (as seen above).  Sweet Relief Musicians Fund is a good site for a cause, but is only for a disease cause like cancer and to help musicians in need.  Not for a charity concert for anti-bullying.   

-Renee Breau

Graphic Designer 

reneebreau.com 

So other than the usual leads, I have a few assets that I'm going to be using in an upcoming anti-bullying poster. I'm keeping it very minimal with color choices and using vertical and horizontal patterns through out. I originally wanted the colors to be oranges and reds but I though that the cyan would offset the orange so whenever something was being singled out from a group you would have not problem finding the odd one out. I'm going to continue on this poster, I just to make a few more assets. 

Tim Olech, Graphics Intern

Whats New with the Graphic Designers?

2/19/12- Today I worked on my Anti-Bully Poster from Esente.  I made some corrections to the quote (text) including changing the size and writing out the word One.  Then the picture did not match the quote because there was 1 and every 5^th match lit.  To fix this I went into Photoshop and erased the extra match to make it 1 in 4 on the red version.  I still have to change the green image as well.  I continued with researching companies for On Point Media in Insurance in Cambridge, MA.  I collected 22 companies, some of the companies were hard to find.  Then I collected 6 college magazines with 10 contacts for Maine media list.  I am almost done with the whole state of Maine for media outlets and think I will finish tomorrow.  I also worked on the National Anthem working with Virginia Colleges, finding contacts information for Becca Levy to sing at an event (football, basketball, hockey and others).   

-Renee Breau

Graphic Designer

reneebreau.com 

What's New with Graphic Intern?

2/7/13 – Today, I collected 21 companies in the Invest Finance Category for Boston, MA.  For the media list I gathered 7 newspaper and 10 Radio companies with 20 emails.  Then I worked on fixing my anti-bullying poster with corrections from the group, by changing the quote to a 1 and 5 fact.  This is because my fact I had did not communicate the idea of the poster and by changing the fact the poster will be better.   Continue on the National Anthem project with researching more high schools in MA that Becca Levy could sing at.  I am trying to get either the athletics director or events coordinator (and if they do not have any I do not add them to my list).  I am starting to gather more than the previous days because I am not researching where the National Anthem is sung at high school events.     

-Renee Breau 

Graphic Designer

reneebreau.com

What I've been up to

During my first few day of my internship with Esente, I've been taught how to collect the leads for the Esente Music Group and compiling an ever-growing Media List for OnPoint Media Company. I've also been able to show my talents as a graphic design student and created a poster on anti-bullying.

This poster addresses the issues that can come from staying silent about bullying. I wanted to use very strong but minimal colors to create a eye catching poster. The image it self was created in Adobe Illustrator and then was brought in to InDesign to do the type layout. There is second version but only difference is the copy, while the slogan stays the same. I hope to be doing a lot more work like this during my time here. 

- Tim Olech | Graphics Intern