Sonia Janovjak, Gail Leija, Kim Welch, Norma Penner - Sapient Nitro

Names: Kim Welch, Gail Leija, Sonia Janovjak, Norma Penner
Company: SapientNitro

SapientNitro is a multi-national advertising agency, with about 10, 000 employees worldwide. The Toronto office has about 240 employees, and creative team currently consists of 25 people and the IA team about 12. Some of their clients include Ambercrombie, Vail, BMO, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RBC, Harley Davidson, Sportchek and TD.

Sonia Janovjak is a recruiter for designers, information architects and front-end developers.

Kim Welch is a Studio Manger and handles staffing and project planning.

Gail Leija works in Experience Research which includes IA, ethnography and usability testing.

Norma Penner is a graduate of our program and is a Senior Art Director. She talked to us about several campaigns that she has worked on since starting at Sapient.

"The definition of great is entirely defined by the client."

Norma spoke to us about how everything Sapient does in a project is driven by the client and what they need. She said that they describe themselves as the "Meryl Streep" of advertising agencies - they transform what their doing for the "role".

Norma also showed us some samples of her work with Sapient:

1. Jeep Wrangler
A microsite that was to coincide with an international campaign. Because it had to work across many countries and languages, they told the story mainly using pictures and used some new web technologies such as paralaxing to give a feel of depth to the site.

2. Chrysler Grand Voyager
This was another microsite that showed off the vehicle and had to work with an existing television ad. They used the contrast between nostalgia and present day, and it was interesting because the entire campaign was marketed towards men.

3. Abercrombie & Fitch
Norma described how she was brought to the A&F headquarters in the US. She worked with their design team to create an online "Fit Guide" for their jeans and to also create a mobile experience.

4. Vail
This was a project for the snowboarding and skiing community of Vail - to take the visitor's experience and make it better. They created an online experience that to supplement what visitors were already doing, without making them take time out of their vacation. Visitors received badges and rewards just for skiing and professional photographs were taken of people as they went down the slopes. They essentially "gamified" the experience for visitors as the program was available online and through mobile which gave opportunities to share using social media.

Gail spoke to us about how to take a user-centered approach to design. She talked us through the process of implementing a strong research approach to the design to strengthen both the IA and visual design of a project. She used Harley Davidson as an example - they wanted to start targeting women, and Gail created a program to get primary research from real women and create a persona for that woman.

She also stressed that keeping the clients involved with this process is important, because you need them to support and advocate for what you're doing. Especially since this is the part of a project a client would be less willing to pay for.

Lastly, Kim spoke to us about the staffing process as Sapient. Her role is to keep people working on billable projects and schedules who works on what campaign. She is also involved in interviewing and looks for people that can work within a team, has an attitude of giving feedback, is willing to learn and is flexible in their work.

She also promoted Sapient's work culture. She described their environment for learning and that when looking for work, they target Fortune 500 companies, with varying types of work. She also spoke about the opportunity for promotion - you get to pick your own supervisor and direct your own career path. There is no ceiling (no one competes for specific positions) and no one else in Canada does what they do in terms of promoting their staff. She describe the initiation for new staff - Sapient Start - where all new hires across North America are initiated at the same time, in different locations every time.

In terms of hiring, Sapient looks for:

• Forward-thinking design
• Fluency in current digital channels
• Typography (usually the first thing that is looked at)
• Presentation skills (design skills can't stand alone)
• Eagerness (have background knowledge on the company)
• Compassion and drive
  

Name: Jon and Genco Cebecioglu
Company: Studio Vitamin C

Jon and Genco are brothers who own their own design studio, Studio Vitamic C. The name of the studio comes from the initial of their last name, and also for "creativity". They are a small studio of 3 people, though they mentioned they would like to grow their business in 2012. He also talked about how networking is the key to this industry and that since they started their own business, they haven't needed to do any marketing for themselves because of referrals and industry contacts.

During their presentation, they walked us through several of their past and current projects, and how they work through the projects from concept to completion. One such project was Jumping Fish, a software start up company. The showed us their logo design concepts and how they and the client worked together to arrive at the final piece. They also demonstrated the site and showed us how they used a JavaScript plug-in to make a clean and simple elevator site for the client.

As a graduate of our program, Genco stressed the importance of concentrating on our independent projects. He also talked to us about some of our careers options after graduating. Similar to what some other guest speakers have mentioned, he said that working at a small studio, you are more likely to get credit for work and be heard but there aren't many opportunities to move up and the budgets aren't as big. At larger studios, you have the potential for promotion and to work on big brands, but there are long hours and you may be taken advantage of. He also mentioned some of the issues with working freelance include needing to be busy all the time to make it worthwhile, and that there is no security.

Lastly, Genco talked to us about starting our own businesses, as there are many seed investors influencing a huge start up boom in Toronto at the moment. He stressed that this path requires passion and belief in your products, and that seed investors don't necessarily invest in a product, they invest in the person. However, he said that while he loves having his own business, there was no way he could have done it without working in the industry first; learning how it worked and gaining industry contacts were critical to their success.