The Backwards Tale of “What Are You Going To Do With Those Degrees?” To “What Are You Doing With Your Life?”

 

I would’ve laughed if you had told me three years ago I would be the Client Success Manager for 1909 DIGITAL. I dreamed of museums my entire life– as an art historian in college, an educator in graduate school, and a digital tech professional. I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in May 2020 with degrees in Arts Administration and Art History. For six years in higher education, I focused on museums’ issues and how to fix them. My thought was (and still is!) museums can implement digital technology solutions to modernize learning experiences and offer experiences to reflect the digitally-focus world we live in. I wanted to change the museum world, but– woah! BURNOUT ALERT!

 

After three years of taking job after job throughout the pandemic, I took a moment to think about what I really “want to do when I grow up?” What I love about agency work is that I can utilize my skills in project management, creative solution-based thinking, and collaboration. I love that I can throw an idea that is “not how it’s always been done,” take that innovative idea, and create a new, forward-thinking solution. On the same note, more often than not, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

My motto in life is “work smarter, not harder.” My strength lies in how my mind processes information, can see solutions, and is innovative when problem-solving. I am also highly organized and excellent with *gently* nudging people to get things done– hence the project manager role!

 

In My Free Time

I am a photographer, collage artist, Marvel fan, foodie, avid traveler, plant mom, and I enjoy going for many walks with my Beagle super mutt, Opal. I will answer since I always get asked – My favorite superhero is Spiderman (Tom Holland – am I right?!), and I spent way more time than I care to admit listening to No Way Home theories on Youtube. My favorite Marvel movie? Nothing has topped the moment in Endgame when *spoiler alert* all the blipped characters come back to defeat Thanos’ army and “I am Iron Man.”

My best friend and I have a tradition of getting tickets for every Marvel movie on opening night, and it’s to the point where I buy the tickets and send her a Google Calendar invite to the movie time without asking or double-checking. I make it very clear when dating someone new that they will not interfere with this “girl-mance.” Regarding my travel plans, I want to go to every National Park in an RV I customize so Opal can sniff all the different smells America offers. I want to go to Europe for every significant event or holiday they’re known for. My next big adventure is hopefully Munich, Germany, for Oktoberfest! Let’s see!

 

Other Fun Facts About Me:

• “I was a Midwesterner in a past life” – I’m originally from sunny Southern California, but now I am a Chicagoan for life.
• I have aphantasia – I cannot voluntarily create a mental picture, scene, person, or object in my head. I can only relate to the memories I have.
• A 2022 goal was to go viral on TikTok– #baking and #dating. My goal in 2023 is to keep growing as a content creator! 

 

Organization & Project Management

Hi! I’m Kelly, the Digital Project Manager at 1909.

I’ve been responsible for a wide variety of tasks in my current and previous roles. I’ve scheduled meetings, ordered supplies, created and implemented processes, invoiced, planned events and team outings, purchased incentives, set up systems access, and the list goes on. This requires me to stay organized and keep very detailed notes.

Not unlike in my personal life, I’m able to juggle many things at once and incorporate my love of lists and all things organization. I absolutely love planning and executing parties, making lists for myself, and I could watch episodes of “Get Organized with The Home Edit” or “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” all day. It’s SO satisfying to see the finished projects!

A well-organized plan is my love language.

Work From Home or Anywhere

Initially, I struggled with working from home. Although it saved me multiple hours a week in commute time, I missed the social aspect. My co-workers at 1909 do a really great job of staying connected and being part of each other’s lives, even if it’s just to send a quick slack message to say hi, share a funny meme we can all laugh at, or post pictures of their kids. I realized that with the flexibility–and unlimited PTO–I have at 1909 DIGITAL, I could work toward some goals of my own!

One of my ultimate personal goals has always been to travel as much as possible. Life is just so short, and you only get one shot. Since the pandemic forced so many of us to work remotely, I thought, “If I can work from home… couldn’t that actually be from anywhere?”

Turns out, yes! Yes, it can.

“Working from home” can easily morph into an experience of working from an Airbnb, hotel, RV, or boat! Just last month, I was able to work from both Maine and Florida. In Maine, I was able to visit family, explore a local wildlife park, eat some amazing seafood, and sample a local winery. With friends in tow, I went to the beach, an amusement park, and finally to a Pirate dinner adventure show in Florida!

I feel so lucky to be able to blend my work and home life into location independence, allowing me to take more time for myself, fit in hobbies, health, and mental wellness. I ultimately have more time for friends and family, to see the world, and take my job with me on the road.

 

Flexible & Agile Schedule

Working while traveling requires a lot of planning ahead and organization to accomplish everything successfully. Utilizing our flexible and agile schedule at 1909 has also given me more time to make the most of my travels. Being able to combine my love of traveling and organization into my work life, I’m able to have a truly great work-life balance.

I want to share with you my 10 best tips for working while traveling. If your employer offers remote work and you can take your laptop and go, I highly suggest getting out, even for a solo trip, and enjoying yourself! Becoming a “digital nomad” can be easy if you follow these tips below.

10 Best Tips for Working from Anywhere

1. Travel with people who understand that you’ll be working.
2. Take time to organize your blended schedule.
3. Communicate your schedule clearly to your team and clients.
4. Research Wi-fi accessibility–or just invest in a hotspot so you can always work from anywhere no matter what.
5. Account for time changes.
6. Pack thoroughly, but don’t overcomplicate things.
7. Bring noise-canceling headphones. Nothing is worse than not being able to concentrate on your call because your surroundings are too noisy.
8. Don’t be the driver! Offline work that can be synced up later can be done while being a passenger in a car or plane.
9. Don’t be afraid to work at night. (You can schedule almost anything on a delayed send!)
10. Create a space in your temporary home that acts like an office.

Talking Type is the first blog post in a series that will be written by our team members. We’ll each share things that we love or nerd out about outside of our work life that bleeds into our professional roles. This first post was written by Logan Hamilton Acton, our Creative Director. He’s a member of the Association Typographique Internationale, Type Directors Club, and The Typographic Circle. To say he geeks out about type is an understatement. Read below to learn a bit more about Logan’s passion and gain some high-level enlightenment.

 

Type in Action

Type and lettering are some of the most powerful, and often subliminal, communicators of meaning. In my role leading brand development for clients, I am able to put my passion for typography into action as our team works to ensure that all public communication reinforces a company’s core values and effectively supports its goals. At times this may take center stage — when designing a logo, for instance, which will be replicated nearly endlessly and come to be all but synonymous with that organization. In these cases, it is crucial that the typographic and symbolic content efficiently identify the business they represent, encapsulating its essential voice. 

For everyday situations, the role typography plays tends to be quieter — one more piece of the brand puzzle that an audience feels but does not actively think much about. Far from diminishing its importance, in fact this drives us to do our very best to be sure our clients are using all the tools in their belts to communicate their core messaging. If a campaign aims for ‘friendly’ and a type treatment feels foreboding, we are already fighting an uphill battle. While there is no one right font for a particular purpose, there are most certainly better and worse options. Getting it wrong won’t ruin your business, but standing out with the same care and craft with which you make every business decision? That can be a powerful differentiator and one more way our team loves to help our clients succeed.

On Structure and Stability

Typography is a special thing. While letterforms have changed a great deal since the innovation of moveable type nearly 600 years ago, their structure is remarkably constant. Language is a living entity, no doubt — malleable and constantly evolving as new words enter common usage and others are yearly removed from our standard dictionaries. Within the Latin alphabet, however, the letters that comprise these words remain nearly unchanged through centuries of technological and cultural innovation.

Surprisingly (or perhaps inevitably, given such wide variation) there is no official system of type classification. Different attempts have been devised to help categorize typefaces, to various degrees of usefulness. Broadly speaking, the most familiar terms for most people will likely be the four big buckets which are commonly used to organize more detailed subdivisions: serif, san serif, script, and display or decorative fonts. 

Put simply, serif faces are those we often encounter when reading books and include the finishing strokes on the top and bottom of letters, called serifs. Times New Roman will be familiar here. San serifs generally follow the same approach, but omit the serifs in favor of a simplified and more direct form — the star of its own well-known documentary, Helvetica might come to mind. As their name implies, scripts recall the process of writing and popularly find themselves in logos or formal invitations rather than used for large bodies of text. Finally, display or decorative fonts include a massive range of expressive designs intended for limited application at large sizes.

 

The Seduction of Form

While the structure of letters has proven highly durable, within (and to the limits of) these boundaries is plenty of space for endless innovation. We are able to easily discern the letter “E,” for instance, in its simplest and most unadorned san serif form to its most elaborate script and display varieties. 

Sometimes, the richness of character may be felt more than seen, registering through the overall ‘texture’ of a piece of writing rather than through the specific elements of a given letter. This is particularly true of fonts used for setting body copy, or large amounts of text. In this case, smaller sizes and the way we read words rather than individually identify letters mean that we don’t (and arguably shouldn’t) pay attention to the details but instead focus on the content at hand. Beatrice Warde famously asserted this exact point in her essay “The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should be Invisible.”

At larger sizes, however, something somewhat magical happens and the forms of a letter have the power to be monumental, graceful, even unfamiliar. Outside design there is also no shortage of artists who have been captivated by the abstract forms of lettering or the visual dynamics of calligraphy. Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline and many other artists dedicated much of their careers to such an exploration of form. And you will, of course, find all manner of type enthusiasts within the ranks of designers and collectors of type specimens, those beautiful publications intended to showcase (and sell) collections of letters. Although the practical function typography serves in visual communication is critical, its expressive, emotionally rich potential makes good business sense in differentiating a brand. Maybe just as important, the beauty of a well-crafted form offers a moment of pause and appreciation in our increasingly complex world.

If anything is necessary regarding 2021, it’s a good reflection session with plenty of focus on the big wins and a healthy discussion about the challenges. It’s easy to get hung up on a couple losses, but at 1909 DIGITAL, we know that we always land in the best place.

Not landing a project we know we would have excelled at? There’s usually a bigger, better, more “fit-to-our-expertise” project knocking down our door the next week. In fact, this has happened frequently! In this blog, we’ll share fun facts from the year, some stats and wins from our clients, and our thoughts about the rollercoaster that was 2021.

In November we took the time to get our whole team together to reflect on our past year. We gathered at the Peace Learning Center, a local nonprofit which facilitates community learning to act as a catalyst for peace, equity, and justice. They also happen to be a 1909 client! Their beautiful office and grounds are located in Eagle Creek in Indianapolis—the perfect space for our small gathering. The serene, natural surroundings provided a wonderful spot for our team to brainstorm and reflect. We are so fortunate to have partners like the Peace Learning Center, because they are willing to share their spaces and resources to do good work for our community.

APPRECIATING OUR TEAM MEMBERS

We celebrated our team members individually during the retreat by handing out Hot Wheels “trophies” and sharing the amazing things each individual has brought to the 1909 team this year. Each Hot Wheels car subtly represented a distinct skill or interest for each team member. It’s always fun to reflect on the breadth of experience and depth of expertise we rely on daily and don’t necessarily appreciate on a regular basis. 

By just being thoughtful, a 99 cent purchase—Hot Wheels are very budget friendly!—provided the morale boost our team needed!

REFLECTING

We accomplished BIG wins in 2021. Despite a worldwide pandemic, our team and our list of incredible clients has continued to grow. In contrast, there were a number of prospective projects that encouraged us to stretch our skill sets, networks, and work process. The experience and confidence we gained simply from the opportunity to pitch these projects was invaluable to our leadership team. While we didn’t secure these next-level contracts, we were often the second choice, with valid reasons that another agency was selected. It showed us that we can stand next to the extremely well-resourced, larger agencies and are absolutely capable of the “big” stuff. 

Speaking of the “big” stuff, it’s easy to forget that we launched a whole second company this year! TrustEngine is a brain trust of vetted marketers, developers, and creatives who we know, love, and are confident will deliver on project goals without breaking the bank. TrustEngine helped us streamline our core 1909 team to focus on strategy and optimization. This allows our wider network to support implementation and delivery work. We always say, “There’s no such thing as competition,” and we stand by it. This networked-centered venture means we can spread the love when work comes our way, while still supporting both our clients and our trusted vendors with our project management and processes. 

We are committed to seeing everyone—team members, our network, and our clients—excel in the future.

Are you a numbers person? Take a look at this wrap-up from 2021:

Fun Facts:

✔️ 3 co-owners full-time

✔️ 6 full-time team members

✔️ Over 25 clients from 2020-2021

✔️ 6 Preferred Partners

✔️ Launched a second business—TrustEngine! 

✔️ 5 TrustEngine Clients

✔️ 40+ Trusted Freelancers

Big Wins:

⭐ $550,000 raised in three months for a local nonprofit’s capital campaign

⭐ Helped a long term client increase sales by 25% YOY with less staff
⭐ Completed tech stack overhauls and data migrations for two essential community-centered nonprofits

⭐ Selected to run a facilitated live webinar on Social Media Strategy for an online resource library focused on small museums

⭐ Got a music school back to pre-pandemic registration levels at a higher margin

⭐ Clients returned for additional trainings, renewed contracts, and kind referrals & recommendations

⭐ Developed more processes and streamlined our own work to better serve our clients and our business

PLANS FOR 2022

If 2021 was so great, where do we go from here? Only awesome things are in our future. We’re excited to start the year off with clients we’ve worked with since the beginning, clients we’ve found and continue to build strong relationships with, and new clients who share our values and make an impact in their communities!

Here are some of our hopes and internal goals for the new year:

🎉Continuing to build out a new “Clients” page on our website

🎉Sharing case studies about all of our extraordinary client projects

🎉Bringing on another team member to support TrustEngine

🎉Networking in person again.—is this a long shot?

🎉Adding more Preferred Partners from our extensive, skilled community of digital marketing friends

 

Cheers to 2021, our fabulous team, the impact we’ve been proud to make, and the partnerships we’ve developed along the way!

Hi! My name is Courtney Krauter and I’m the Intern-turned-teammate here at 1909 DIGITAL!

Having just graduated from IU Bloomington this August, I’m so excited to finally put my skills in Digital Marketing and Graphic Design to use.

HOW’D I GET HERE?

With my concentration in Media Advertising and specialization in Ad Creative, at IU I got a great deal of exposure to powerful messaging and effective design. One of my favorite classes was Advertising Portfolio Workshop. We came up with strong campaigns for different companies and created deliverables that captured the essence of the product/service from a fresh and creative perspective. It got me thinking about how important creativity is to digital marketing. Nobody wants to see the same thing twice. Digital marketing requires fresh ideas at every turn, which is why I love it so much. There are no limits when it comes to advertising and I feel so lucky to be a part of a team that lets me dive into my imagination to bring ideas to fruition.

Other than creative thinking, I’d like to think I also succeed in the execution process (you can definitely double check this with my boss, I won’t be offended.) I have about three years of design programming experience under my belt that helps me work efficiently and bring ideas to life almost immediately. I got my start in year two of college when I randomly took an Intro to Photoshop course. (The curriculum said we’d be adding shark bodies to bird heads, duh I’m gonna partake in this.) From there, my curiosity in design rocketed and I started teaching myself how to work in other programs like Adobe Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and AfterEffects. I love that even when you think you have a program down, there’s always more to explore and implement into design, whether it’s for advertisements or beyond.

EVERYTHING ELSE.

When I’m not designing ads and optimizing campaigns for 1909 clients, you can find me at my other job at Sun King Spirits, where I bartend and serve! I’ve always had a passion for meeting people and can talk for hours straight if somebody doesn’t stop me. I love being part of a workplace that encourages communication. Other than work, I spend a lot of time with my family and obsess over my adorable nephews. My siblings are my best friends and we geek out on video games and music together. When I find some time for myself, I love perusing the Target aisles for things I definitely don’t need and thrift shopping for clothes I definitely don’t have any more room for in my closet.

A fun fact about me? I was in an acapella and sketch comedy group at Indiana University. My singing group performed all around campus and the Bloomington community and my comedy group had wacky hour-long shows once a month. Because of this, I have some sketch writing and music composing under my belt! I’ve always been into singing and acting and I don’t see myself stopping post-grad. I’d love to get involved with local Indy theatre. You might just see me onstage performing soon!

So that’s all about me in 534 words! I’m so excited to have this opportunity to work with 1909 DIGITAL and grow in my marketing skills with some of the nicest, knowledgeable, and hard working people in the field. (Yeah I’m biased, so what.)