Brittny Goran 
Firm Director

What are your plans for after graduation?

 I am taking a vacation with my mom to Florida to celebrate graduation! Then I will start my full time job at Veterans United Home Loans as the marketing intern coordinator

Where is your ideal place to live?

Columbia, it is my home town near family and friends. But traveling is always in my plans

How did Creative Ink help you for your future endeavors? 

Creative Ink has definitely helped me with my future. It has helped me increase my professional skills, working with clients along with sharpening my leadership and management skills.

What was your favorite Creative Ink experience? 

My favorite part of Creative Ink was creating close friendships with the girls, sharing a passion of marketing. I will never forget the late nights spent in the Creative Ink office working on projects for clients

What will you miss most about Stephens College? 

The thing I will miss about Stephens is the shared passion to succeed. Everyone is so supportive on one another to achieve their dreams.

Emily Detloff
Creative Executive

What are your plans for after graduation?

I’m moving back to my lovely home in Bloomington, IL. For the summer I’m working my usual summer job at the garden shop, vacationing in Charleston, SC and San Antonio, TX, and freelance designing!

Where is your ideal place to live?

South! I’m thinking around the Gulf – warmer and closer to some of my family.

Do you have any exciting graduation plans? 

Once my sister and I get moved home from school, I’m having a cute little backyard party.

How did Creative Ink help you for your future endeavors? 

Creative Ink has helped soooo much. It’s given me a much clearer idea of how a professional firm works and if it’s a good fit for me as a professional. I’ve gained great communication experience with both clients and colleagues and I’m much more confident with my work.

What was your favorite Creative Ink experience? 

My favorite creative ink experience was getting to work with such amazing ladies!! I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to collaborate and learn with them! It’s also an awesome feeling to see you and your friends’ work being used and impacting the community.

What will you miss most about Stephens College? 

There are so many things. One of the most unique features of Stephens is how integrated we all are. I’m going to miss always having my Stephens ladies around. It’s so nice having a tight-knit community that supports and inspires you.

Nichole Twenter
Account Executive

What are your plans for after graduation?

After graduation I will be working in Columbia as a Financial Associate for Boone County National Bank.

Where is your ideal place to live?

My ideal place to live would be in the country overlooking a lake.

How did Creative Ink help you for your future endeavors? 

Creative Ink taught me leadership and organizational skills. The work experience is also something that sets me apart from other job applicants.

What will you miss most about Stephens College? 

I will miss my Kappa Delta sorority sisters the most! The sorority has helped me grow over the past three years into a confident young woman.

What time is it?
Time for you to get a break!

In the season where busy is in and breaks are
rare, how do you squeeze some “you” time into
your already overflowing schedule? Drum roll…

Time management!

But with all the tips and tricks out there how
can you possibly know what really works?
The truth of the matter is that effective time
management is going to look different for everyone.
We want to give you some helpful hints
worth trying that might help you better balance
your list of things to do.

Time saver #1: Learn to say “No.”
Chess club? Game day tailgate? Pizza with
the roomies? Movie night with the family? Saying “no”
to things that interest you can be hard, but sometimes saying “yes” can be even
harder. Practice setting a certain amount of “social” time aside each week and
sticking to it then watch how your calendar opens up!

Time saver #2: Write. It. Down.
Keeping a planner doesn’t seem so silly after you’ve missed your third
meeting that week. Planning to call your best friend? Write it down. Need to make a
quick run to the grocery store? Write it down. By the time you get in the habit of
keeping track of your time, you’ll begin to find ways to make time to relax. And you
can write that down too!

Time saver #3: Schedule in rewards!
Everyone loves a little appreciation for doing a good job, even if it’s just you
appreciating yourself! After a busy week of taking tests and working doubles,
schedule in some free time to do something fun. It will give your mind a chance to
slow down when you know there is nothing else you should be doing!

So that’s our two cents on time management. Give ‘em a try! Feel free to mix and
match, remember there is more than one formula when it comes to spending time
wisely.

The new space is much more than just an office. It is a sign showing that we will continue to grow and provide opportunities for Stephens students for years to come. Our directors furthered the excitement of the new office with a surprise for our faculty advisor, Kate Gray.

Kate Gray is more than the rockstar graphic designer she appears to be. She is quite the fine artist and a superb watercolorist. Earlier this semester, Kate showcased her watercolors downtown at Tellers. The focus? Positive energy. The twist? A subtle twist with negative energy.

Brittny and Bree, CI’s firm directors, bought this piece to display in our new office. Just like the positive energy in the piece is balanced by the negative, so are we inspired by this symbol of light while we are trapped by frustration in light of looming final exams and deadlines. We look at this piece of artwork for positive strength to finish out the semester strong.

One second: 8,500 likes.
Two seconds: 2,000 comments.
One day: 40 million pictures uploaded.
Are these statistics for Facebook?
Nope.
Instagram.

Just months after its launch in October of 2010, the online photo-sharing service exploded as an instant hit on a global level⎯quickly landing it at the social media forefront alongside big league players such as Facebook and Twitter. Today, the social networking platform⎯designed solely as a mobile native application⎯claims 7.3 million daily users, surpassing Twitter, its elder competitor who while created four years prior currently stands at only 6.9 million users a day.

While most see the image exclusive network as a way to capture their life in a snapshot, apply a filter to make it art, then publicly share it with the world, it wasn’t long before brands began recognizing the new marketing opportunity. But just like on any other social media platform, the success of a brand’s account is not gained by luck. When is comes to Insta-marketing, strategy is key.

So what works? A few brands that have built a solid presence on Instagram offer insight to the tricks of the trade.

First, involve your followers. Sharpie does a wonderful job of doing this by posting pictures of “sharpie-artwork” submitted by the general public.

Second, show off your human side. Billboard does this by posting photos of celebrities in semi-candid shots, thus making the brand look more genuine. Don’t fill your feed with text filled pictures promoting discounts and sales, put those on Facebook. Instagram was made for the visual appeal.

Lastly, take it slow. When it comes to social media content is general, the rule is quality over quantity. Puma provides a great example. While they average around only one to two photos per day, the images that they post are consistently classy and appealing.

So while social media is gradually becoming common knowledge within our society, it doesn’t go without saying that a successful social media presence requires greater effort and planning. And based on Instagram’s rapid growth it’s safe to say that brands wanting to keep up with the younger markets can no longer afford to remain on Facebook and Twitter alone. Today’s consumers are driven by visuals, so what better way to reach the crowds than through an image driven network?

This semester marks a very exciting milestone for us Ink-ers: we have officially been around for five whole years! I know, I can’t believe it either. It’s simply amazing to reflect on how much the firm has changed in the three semesters I have been a member, let alone in the past five years. With leadership changing from Dean Susan Bartel, to Barbara Scott Dawdy, to our current advisor Kate Gray, it’s hard to believe that we operate under the same guiding principles. But we do.

We took our firm photos earlier this month and decided to go with a birthday theme. We even invited Susan Bartel, the woman who started it all, to be in our photos. After the madness of coordinating our poses and many takes and retakes, Susan shared a little history with us.

It all started in a van in 2007 on the way back from an American Marketing Association conference. Somehow in the hour and a half ride from St. Louis to Columbia, Creative Ink was born. From the “wouldn’t that be neat?” to the “ehh, it’ll never happen” onto “I think this could really work,” Creative Ink certainly has worked.

And we still work really hard to deliver professional, targeted solutions to our various clients.

To our first clients, current clients and everyone in between-we just want to say thank you for trusting our business and letting us help you. Here’s to the next five years!

As a student at Stephens College, I have had the unique opportunity to take part in real life job experience through Creative Ink, a student run marketing firm.  I never dreamed that before I even started my career I would be dealing directly with owners of Columbia businesses. Being an account executive I have found that with any relationship, clear communication is the key to success.

Creative Ink, like any other organization, relies on contact between all members. Although each team member has many important jobs to accomplish, communication links the team members and their jobs together to facilitate success. Each project or design is run through many people before the final result. Throughout this process communication helps to produce efficiency, satisfy customers, and to create successful products or services.

There are so many ways that business professionals communicate, especially through email. Before Creative Ink I probably checked my email once every few days. I have quickly learned that in a real job environment communication is constantly happening.  Instead of sending Tweets or uploading my new Instagram photos like an average college student, I catch myself checking my email during my free time.

Creative Ink has shown me that you don’t only have to maintain strong communication with your clients, but your team members as well. Keeping in contact with your team helps a strong idea evolve to a design that will stand out. Continuing this connection with those around you will help to create a product or service that will effectively communicate to it’s target audience.

As one of the newest members of Creative Ink, I have learned that to have a successful team that gets the job accomplished, it is not always about working in the office.  Field trips, guest speakers, having fun in the office, and volunteering are all a part of what brings the Creative Ink team together. The Creative Ink staff recently took a trip to Columbia Second Chance, a no kill animal shelter that gives fuzzy friends a fighting chance. This team building and volunteering opportunity idea came from Creative Ink member Kaylyn Crane, a Creative Representative and a regular volunteer at the Columbia Second Chance shelter.

As a cat lover myself, I quickly volunteered to help clean the cat rooms. Not only were we supposed to give these feline friends a clean home but also provide play for the day. Cleaning quickly turned into playtime after we found that the cats would rather us use our hands for scratching and play than cleaning their spaces. Jenny, a small calico cat, bumped up against my hands while cleaning until I gave her the attention she was demanding; a classic cat attitude of course! The fun and playful spirits of the cats not only drew us to them, but also pulled us together as a team.

Experiences, such as volunteering at Columbia Second Chance, provided the Creative Ink staff with an opportunity that promotes bonding among team members. This experience will further help us communicate, cooperate and understand the resources of each team member – all elements that enrich the work of a team. Like we do every week in the Creative Ink office, having fun while working hard is what we did to successfully volunteer at Columbia Second Chance.

While Creative Ink is a professional environment for Stephens women to gain real-world marketing experience, we are also focused on using our resources to link them to real business professionals. Each semester, business professionals, typically women that our CI team members can relate to, come into our office to discuss their triumphs, failures and insight to the marketing industry.

This fall, we have been fortunate to have had many successful, professional women in to share their experiences with us. The list of speakers include:

-Sarah Skaggs, Executive Director of Missouri Citizens for the Arts

-Kris Lensmeyer-Leshner, Fresh Ideas

-Lili Vianello, Vision Works

The most recent guest we welcomed to Stephens campus was Vicki Russell, Columbia Daily Tribune Publisher. This was a special event open to all other students on campus, hosted by Creative Ink. An open forum for questions and dialogue allowed for students to better understand Russell’s background. I personally believe that she was an excellent example to all women on how to keep all options open, and to not settle for anything less than what you want from your career. It was inspiring to here her struggle as a young woman professional and how her skill sets from various avenues brought her career together.

The opportunity to meet with these women allows us, as students, to understand the field that we are pursuing degrees in. The information they provide us is valuable knowledge we would never gain from a textbook. Each story is different, along with the advice.

Quotes from the speakers that I will always keep in mind include:

“Keep your options open and don’t be afraid to take risks.”—Russell

“Prepare for the worst, expect the best.”—Russell

“Advice to being successful: have a professional image, find the value in what you are doing, be creative and take risks, keep current and ask questions as well as listen.” —Kris (fresh ideas)

As I complete my last year at Stephens College, I will keep these quotes in mind to push me forward while seeking the job of my dreams.