the city of beards.

this is a little side project my partner [mr.wheeler preddy.] and i did at Crispin.

basically we were inspired by the amount of beards here in boulder [seriously, it's ridiculous. even half the women have them. ok maybe not.] and decided to make this interactive poster to hang at CP&B with a disposable camera and see what happens.

join the beardom of boulder, the city of beards. i'll post the camera photos once the experiment is over. for now, here are some pictures from the making of.

the instructions. hard to read on the real pictures.
going to kinkos for the third time to print the poster.
waiting for the poster at kinkos.
cutting and pasting precision.

midnight posting at CP&B on their news board.
the final product.bad ass partner.
i'm thinking about growing a real one.
the makers of.

wow i have been a blogging slacker.

i'm currently working on a campaign about being lazy. i think it's rubbing off...

first boulder post.

so i know it's been awhile. i've made it to boulder, finally settled in and getting started on my last quarter of miami ad school. with that said, everyone in this industry is values their weight in awards. this youtube video is absolutely hilarious and i think sort of represents how the rest of the world [outside of the advertising community] views our awards.

the future of advertising.

i met with someone to review my book last night for the first time. with only three months of ad school left i knew this time would come and it was inevitable. the first is always the hardest and i think it went quite well. but one question she asked me was: what do you want to do? traditional or digital?

i knew this question was coming. its one of the main things they ask new people in the business. however, i still wasnt sure of what my answer to the question is. however, today i am. i want to do effective advertising. if i'm targeting to teens, then i want to do digital. if i'm targeting wallstreet big wigs, i want to do print, and if i'm targeting the average joe on his commute home, i want to do outdoor. maybe its just my ideal, not yet jaded, fresh out of ad school attitude, and that'll soon change, but i want to work on good creative solutions. whatever media that may be in.

however that is leaning more towards digital and interactive solutions. i think this is absolutely hilarious. to normal people, it might not be funny, but to anyone in the ad business, it's right on the money. and freakin hilarious.

karma.

this morning i read a really good blog from a leading female copywriter. she was talking about karma in the advertising sense. i've never thought about it too much but i think its something interesting.

today has been a terrible day. i woke up late, not much sleep. then coming to work my ankle gave out and i fell in the street. a car almost hit me, then it started to rain. it couldnt have been scripted better in a movie, except they forgot to write in the part where matthew mcconaughey runs out and saves me. because he didnt. instead i stand up, bloody knees, scrapped hands and bruised pride, umbrellaless and continued to work. it pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day.

just now i walked down to pret to get a cup of coffee. a deal i've made with myself is i can get coffee if i pack lunch. oh the life of a frugal student who is paying to work. but i smiled and said hi, just the coffee the nice girl behind the counter smiled and said "don't worry about it." i'm not sure why she did, maybe she was too lazy to ring up just a coffee or maybe she was one of the 1,000 new yorkers who saw my little show this morning, but it made my day. somehow, i feel like its a little bit of karma. because damn it, i've done a lot of things that deserve a free coffee every now and then.

a NY update.

NY has definitely been amazing so far. it's finally getting nice out and we've had a chance to get out and do a lot of stuff despite working a lot. [i work on the train wherever i go so i don't feel as guilty]

i also went to boulder, co last weekend for memorial day and to see old friends. it was totally amazing and i fell in love, which is a good thing because friday i received confirmation that i will be spending my next and FINAL quarter of miami ad school in boulder. :) i can not wait. however, i'm going to be extremely sad to leave NY.

here are two albums of what i've been up to including a visit from sab, boulder, and a beautiful beautiful day in coney island:

album 1
album 2

profession of the day: bike messenger

i mean, can't we see the resemblance already? despite this being NYC trend, i think it could be an awesome job.

pros:
-forced to exercise.
-low stress [minus the chance of dying by dodging car]
-chance of dying dodging cars is exciting.
-spend all day outside.
-don't sit in an office all day [especially large perk on days like today when i'm hungover.]
-you can legitimately use the phrase 'don't kill the messenger.'

cons:
-forced to exercise.
-monetary compensation is not quite what i'd hope for.
-rain. [i'm sure i can only call in sick a few time before they realize it's because it's raining.]
-chance of unknowingly participating in illegal activities. [i at least want to know about it.]

overall, i think it could be a good time.

what i would do if i didn't do advertising.

so there are few people i know in this business, especially still in school, who haven't questioned their loyalty to this profession. unfortunately i'm way too devoted to actually do anything else, but fantasizing about it makes me quite happy. i'm considering starting a new blog purely listing all the new professions i'd like to try other than advertising. but until i'm fully committed, or have more than 5 minutes of free time daily, i'll post them here.

today's profession:
selling caipirinha's on the beach in brasil.

this could be me. except slightly smaller melons.

positives:
-you're everyone's favorite person. [at least the guy incessently selling them to me was my favorite person in camburi. then again, i was confused why it was daylight at 5pm.]
-spend all day on the beach. all day in the sun.
-easy access to booze.
-relatively stress-free. [relatively in the sense that dealing with drunk people is never completely stress-free.]
-it's a lot less physical work than the guys walking up and down the beach carrying things.
-minimal expenses on clothing. uniform is bikini.

negatives:
-minimal expenses on clothing. uniform is a bikini. [potential danger to business.]
-skin cancer. [which let's be honest, anyone who knows me and how much i loathe sunscreen knows i probably have it already.]
-must learn portuguese. [i learned this was critical when i ordered a chicken caiprinha instead of a strawberry one. frango instead of morango. which are very similar words to a drunk gringa. however, i dont think the locals are a fan of meat and cachaça.]
-little to no pay. [who cares? i spend everyday on the beach in brasil.]

the list could go on and on. unfortunately, my five minutes is up.

future lions submission.

so i know it's been awhile [sorry aunt kath] but ny has been so crazy busy. i never thought anything could be busier than london. i was wrong. i promise to update with my adventures and more pictures soon, but until then, i threw together a little website to highlight my book. i'm still working out some kinks but i wanted to get feed back. let me know your thoughts.

Carren O'Keefe Portfolio

enjoy!

carren in avatar form.

cute website compliments of tara. this is my creation of self-avatar.
make your own.

my new idol.

Inspiration

happy easter AIG

EASTER AIG HUNT from ABOVE on Vimeo.

first day.

so we're officially at our first day at Y&R. and any rational adult can assume that we aren't busy yet considering i'm blogging. i've come to the conclusion that i hate first days. in college they were amazing. go, get your syllabus and it's see ya next class.

it's a little different in the real world. first of all, no syllabus. thus far we are still clueless as to what we will be doing. i'm really hoping there's not pop quizzes scheduled. and second, regardless of your lack of things to do, you have to stay. so we're sitting here. devon of course is being productive, looking through source images and creative websites. i, on the other hand, have been on twitter and facebook approximately 40 times each and it's not even lunch yet.

however we met with our coordinator, got the grand tour, and gorged on some free monday bagels. but now we wait. and it's always awkward. you don't know people. but they know your the new kids. so you do the introductions and you'll remember about two of the twenty names you got. you want a cup of coffee but youre afraid youll have to talk to someone and sound like an idiot. you kind of stick out like a sore thumb with a huge sign over your head that says 'clueless new intern.' [or at least you feel like you do.]

i'm really excited and i think this is going to be an amazing opportunity once we get started. but until then, i'll be the awkward girl on facebook sitting on floor 7 without coffee.

first weekend.

so i'm officially in NY. and while i haven't blogged, and one would assume i was busy over break, i actually spent it sitting on my couch at home, drinking coffee and watching morning shows. it was quite amazing.

but i'm finally in NY and i'm loving it. for the first time on quarter away, i feel like i'm living somewhere. the victor house is perfect. even though i'm sharing a room we have plenty of room and gigantic vanities help when youre a girl.

my room:

without needing a period of adjustment like in brazil and london, ive actually done and seen quite a bit of the city in the first few days. saturday we went downtown to the pillow fight on wall street.



after that we went to ground zero and walked around lower manhattan. then we made our way to chelsea and headed to the chelsea brewery. there we took a free tour of the brewery and samplled all of their microbrews. finally we ended the night by heading to an amazing karaoke bar in the east village complete with eye of the tiger and r.kelly remix to ignition.

today i met up with tara downtown for lunch at a cute little french place. then after a few glasses of wine we wandered down to rockefeller center. we walked all over manhattan, went to the trump towers for coffee and up to central park. i also acquired my first fake handbag. i'd say all and all it was a very successful day.