Digithoughts

Since Digitaria moved to the DiamondView Tower in March, we’ve enjoyed sharing the building with our hip neighbors on the third floor, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), a private university that provides a specialized training for the graphic design, fashion, interior design and entertainment industries. Students are easily recognizable: enthusiastic, well-dressed, artsy/edgy kids you see in the elevator, often pierced/tattooed/both.

Last Thursday afternoon, one of the classes from FIDM came up to our 12th Floor space to check out a facsimile of life at a marketing and technology company (although since we put away the Red Bull and Nerf guns, and hid any embarrassing Photoshop jobs, maybe it wasn’t the most authentic experience).

Creative Director Paul Drohan engaged the group in conversation about branding, starting with a the casual discussion about what branding is (a personality) and what it isn’t (a logo). Then, he ran through case studies for some of Digitaria’s branding clients, including Rowdy, OHM, IdentityLogic and IFYC. He walked the students through the branding process on each (messaging, logo, color palate, font, branding guidelines), including the story and rationale behind each brand.

The students really perked up when he started talking about passion for design and community involvement (maybe it’s because he made them feel like superheroes): “Our responsibility as designers is to use our power for good and not evil. Marketing is a powerful and influential thing.”

Paul answered questions about finding potential design opportunities, how to price your time and work and discussed the importance of staying true to your passion making sure to find a way to keep designing for yourself. Most importantly, he emphasized the value of exactly what he was doing at that exact moment: getting involved in the community.

“It’s just great to work with young people like this, who are full of creative life and energy,” Drohan said. “One of my favorite things about Digitaria is how we open our doors to new people and their ideas, speaking at local colleges and universities and inviting them to visit as well.”

Kristina Eastham Communications Coordinator

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