In 2014, I was hired at The Second City, the historic comedy club, theatre and school of improvisation, as a design intern. I grew from intern, to Jr. Designer, to Designer and mentor on a team of five. As part of a small design team in a multifaceted company, I was able to have a hand in almost every department across the globe and cater my position to areas I saw need, potential, and had personal interest with both internal and external clients and collaborations. A few of those include the Emmy Award winning Canadian sketch comedy show, Second City TV; the company’s digital video and blog presence, The Second City Network; The Kennedy Center; Slate Magazine; and NBC Universal. A few of my favorite projects and products are discussed below.
Brand, Marketing & Art Direction
I was fortunate enough to have a hand in shaping a major rebrand across all branches of the company. One of my primary roles on the team was as the lead designer of the general Second City brand and stages for both Chicago and Toronto. Under this role I collaborated with our marketing team to develop and execute several brand awareness, microsites, show campaigns, and UI mockups for various target audiences. Because of the variety in projects and stakeholders, flexibility and agility is key when it came to deciding how to handle each process. Several in-depth campaigns upon request.
The Second City Network
Along with the VP of New Media at The Second City, I became a point person for the communication of goals regarding the resign of the Network. The goal and challenge was to first and foremost educate the user about what the Second City Network is. I started researching client needs, user journeys, wireframing pages, helping with quality control and page speed, and discussing our user experience needs and information architecture with the contractor. In addition, I helped rebrand the channel and created a variety of end cards to increase audience retention and engagement.
sctv.com
Our Toronto stakeholders expressed the need for a product that showed off SCTV to potential clients interested in our SCTV archive. The goal was to showcase the history of SCTV Network, its actors, and the legacy the show and actors have left behind. I served as the lead creative director for the project and the sole designer and developer. Using an existing WordPress theme, I reworked the site with custom code to better fit the needs of the client.
