Since early 2012, I've been managing social media strategy & content for ColinCowieWeddings.com, a brand new high-end wedding planning website created by celebrity event planner Colin Cowie. You can follow my work on Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest, but my favorite platform that I manage is Instagram.
We use Instagram to document behind-the-scenes of the wedding industry and wedding planning. I attend every Bridal Fashion Week runway show (YES, there IS a Bridal Fashion Week...) and post live Instagram photos of the new dresses the second they come down the runway. Though Instagram is not directly traffic-driving and not quite monteizable yet, I still think it's an important community building tool for brands.
Here is a sample of the Instagram photos I've taken for CCW. Follow me @ColinWeddings!
Close-up of makeup at a photoshoot for Merci New York
Bridesmaids at a photoshoot wearing Donna Morgan
New fine china for 2012 wedding registries at the tabeltop market
A wedding dress with a watteau train at Bridal Fashion Week
Interviewing Isaac Mizrahi backstage at the show for his new bridal collection
The hand-beaded illusion back of a Lela Rose wedding dress
Gorgeous lace at The Piers bridal show
Catching movement at the Ines di Santo evening wear runway show
Detailing on a Temperley London dress
A couple whose wedding was designed by Colin Cowie, in Colin's office
Glowing Doublecross Vodka at a wedding at the Empire State Building
A groom being fitted before his Colin Cowie wedding
Colin Cowie being interviewed about 2012 wedding trends
The DJ at an "Afternoon Tea" themed wedding
The first dance for Phil & Shawn, finally legally married in NYC after 18 years
Actress Holly Robinson Peete being prepped for her vow renewal ceremony
Wedding band with hidden diamond at De Beers
New bridal headpieces from Leah C Millinery
One of the oldest, most unique, and still most badass sex education sites for teenagers is Scarleteen.com, run by the passionate & talented Heather Corinna. Scarleteen is an interactive educational space started in 1998 where teens have always been able to ask tough questions anonymously to adult professionals plus make connections to each other. The social community is paired with honest articles about the emotional, physical and cultural issues every teen deals with. And there's none of the offensive crap you see in teen magazines! It's not written prescriptively by their parents; it's written by their cool aunt who has their wellbeing in mind but also knows it's healthy and normal for them to experiment. I love this site.
I offered my assistance to Heather a few years ago because I just wanted to be involved any way I could (Scarleteen is run by volunteers), and we decided to start reorganizing the homepage. The first stage of this has finally launched!
I also designed their new logo, which had been the same for over 10 years and just needed a little refresh. (There's actually a neat history of Scarleteen's designs here on Heather's Blog)
During the years I spent at gURL.com, we considered Scarleteen to be the big sister who did all the crazy things first, so by the time we pulled them a few years later, our parents were a little less flabergsted and we could get away with more. I think all the indie teen media I've worked on-- Fitsmi.com, IHeartDaily.com, gURL.com-- owes everything to Scarleteen for creating the space.
Check out their ongoing redesign, and if you know any teens, point them here... it'll be good for them!
I created 2 illustrated cocktails for Whole Foods' new online mag DarkRye, which features some interesting food adventurers as well as my FarmTina project. Here's one, and check out DarkRye.com for the other:
I've been writing the blog FarmTina.com since early 2010 about my small city garden that has sort of become a lil' homestead. Whole Foods heard about what I was doing and came to Brooklyn all the way from Texas to see check it out for their Grow video series! Here's my episode, and stay tuned for more fun Whole Foods & FarmTina initiatives:
I created over 200 illustrations & diagrams for Dr. Paul Fugazzotto's new dental textbook Periodontal-Restorative Interrelationships. Yes, that's my Daddy! It's not his first book, but it's our first book together.
It was an interesting experience to work with my Dad because for the first time ever I actually had to understand what he does-- you can't make step-by-step surgical diagrams without learning the content. After seeing the final product, it struck me how the diagrams, which are very straight-forward and simple, still feel like my own illustration work, which tends to be flowery and cute.
I'm so excited to announce that we've finally redesigned IHeartDaily.com! The site was born in 2008 from beer & conversations at Brooklyn's Soda Bar with Anne Ichikawa and Melissa Walker, former ElleGirl editors who wanted to start a DailyCandy-style site for teen girls. After less than a year, we were nominated for a Bloggie award alongside Jezebel (WHAAAA???), and now, over 3 years later, we've updated to new tech and new design and we're all very happy and fuzzy inside. Oh, and you may have seen us in Seventeen Magazine this month. No big deal.
Check out the site for my design, illustrations, and fabulous Wordpress coding knowledge. We built the original site in MoveableType (oh, 2008!) and it was fun and refreshing to build a new Wordpress site for the gals.
I spent a few short weeks at Livestream.com this summer working with the magnificent new Marketing Director Jessica Kantor as she builds up her strong new team. Livestream has been around for a while, but I have a feeling they're about to become the hottest freakin' thing on the internet. You heard it here first, folks...
I helped out by strategizing social media marketing campaigns, designing promo images for partners and events (some are below), and organizing some good ole' fashioned analytics-informed Twitter and Facebook messaging. I also got to photograph Saves The Day when they came into the studio for a live session and 16-year old me was freaking out inside.
July and August have been spent, among other things, helping to establish a new social media presence for global water brand evian.
Following the success of their award-winning Rollerbabies ad campaign, evian continued the baby theme with the new Baby Inside campaign featuring these super neat baby tees (you can get one at fredflare.com). Alongside the evian brand team at MKG, I worked off this concept to build a supportive Facebook and Twitter presence to integrate into their upcoming 2012 ad campaigns, ad buys, and events. To be honest, the brand made it pretty easy by already having such a loyal following and strong brand recognition.
Are you surprised to know that an established brand with YEARS of global recognition still didn't have a Twitter account until this summer? This is why I love social media: It's so new that there are still a million innovations to be made and a million new large clients to work with!
Fun Fact: evian, which was founded in the 1700s, has been using babies in their ad campaigns for years. Check out this baby-themed evian ad campaign from 1954.