#prep for my upcoming cos campaign

[loveiatar]

eheh

#out of character. #prep for my upcoming cos campaign #to be deleted.

[maliro-t]

nat 20, crit fail, prep and tpk!

nat 20: What's the most memorable RP scene you've been a part of?

I know this is technically a question for me as a player but as a DM, there was an exchange with one of my players (in blue) as this little kid NPC (in red) after they'd saved him from a pretty horrible massacre that just went:

"Have you seen people die?"

"Yeah."

"Did you like them too?"

"Yeah. But there's nothing I could do for them. And they're happier where they are now."

"I wish you could be happy too."

"Yeah."

Which just got me real in my feelings about Mr. Mumford and made me real proud of his player :)

crit fail: Have you ever had a character death? What happened?

I personally have not! I think that's in part because the longest campaigns I've been in as a player were only over about 7 or eight months, so I haven't had a ton of opportunity to be thrust into mortal peril. Although I guess you never know lol, especially at lower levels.

prep: How much prep work do you do? How far out do you prep?

I would say it varies session to session, which is probably normal. I've played around with completely homebrewing some shorter sessions, but there honestly isn't a place for that in my work life balance, so I've turned to running published material (namely Curse of Strahd). That takes a lot of the burden of prep off, since I more rarely am designing things from scratch-- although I do my fair share of modification, and there still is plenty of stuff that I have to figure out myself! For most games I will make sure I have the sections that I will need from the book marked out and available, and especially if looks like it's gonna be a sort of open-ended RP game, I'll write out certain guidelines for myself into my campaign notebook so it's easier for me to keep track of things (I also do this for combat, in that I'll usually write a few lines about major figures' goals, if they're relevant, and maybe their first move or two). I try not to prep much beyond what I think will fit in a session (because I frankly don't have time), but sometimes I overestimate, and will end up with notes that last me three sessions. But beyond sort of vague notions of bigger picture building blocks that are moving in the background, I try to only prep stuff I think will be immediately pertinent. And I do trust my improv skills enough where a lot of that will be vague sketching! For example, in CoS there's a festival that's upcoming in one of the major cities, but the book has truly no information about what the festival itself entails beyond sort of a morbid procession, so I went into that game with an opening scene, a vague thought about ring toss, and a vague thought about local card sharks, and just kind of played it by ear from there. And it was one of our most fun games! I do prep a LOT for combat though-- we play on roll20 so I'm cobbling together maps (which usually will take an hour or so depending) and will often times write out entire stat blocks so I don't have to be looking for them. I do use the dnd beyond encounter tracker some of the time, but in big, complicated encounters, I find that can actually make my life extra confusing, so I do a lot of handwriting shit out on paper.

tpk: Have you ever had a game go completely off the rails? TPK? How did you adjust?

I did in fact facilitate a TPK in my current campaign which was !!!! yeah I would say off the rails is putting it mildly! The entire party was slaughtered by dire wolves, which was a random encounter on the way to a completely different objective so. very unexpected. It was one of those games that truly makes you feel insane, and it was almost entirely down to rolls-- I was rolling very well for these wolves (I think I crit 3 or 4 times?) and they were rolling extremely poorly. It was honestly easier for me that everyone went out than just a few people, because it meant that I could make on the fly decisions for the group and no one had to sit out the rest of the session. So, once the last person went down I gave everyone a kind of solo limbo vignette where we zeroed in on some character/backstory stuff for each of them, just to kind of settle everyone (which was really fun to do, especially since there's a lot they don't know about each other's histories, some more than others), and took a five minute recess to figure out what to do next-- I was lucky that unbeknownst to the party, they were on their way to knock on the door of a hag coven, who had their own reasons to want them alive, so I ended up having them all wake up as their captives. Congrats, you made it to where you were going! Sorry, you're still fucked! And THAT ended up being one of the most fun, intense encounters we've run. And I certainly am weaving some threads in the background about how exactly they survived and what the long-term consequences of that are.

#thank u truths! the whole list of questions is great #there are. definitely more off the rails examples i could have given #but u know the literal TPK was a big one #ask #impossibletruths #placeholder campaign tag #it speaks

[davidforsee]

New November Climates

So, quickly, what did David do this week? In The Studio 4.5 hours    Mid-Term Studio Reviews

Out of the Studio 1 hour   Prepping Mid-Term Studio Review 30 min  Correspondence with Courtney McClellan, UMMA Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist, and Cynthia Pachikara 1 hour   Video Editing for “You’re Invited” sketch 1.5 hour Climate Action Meeting .5 hour  Video Editing for President’s Commission video

another video from Romain Tardy’s The Ark, inspiration for naturally mapped and inspired projection work

Reflections on Process

This week was probably my greatest re-alignment in my thesis yet. My research into artifacts, institutions, spaces, and the like have all informed a decision to move away from a formalist exploration to a direct action informed by the space of U of M’s campus. For my mid-term presentation this manifested as a Museum of Jurassic Technology-esque co-opting of the history of secret societies at Michigan.

After a productive yet mixed response to this material idea - and pertinent issues of the ethics of duplicitous performance, I decided to go back to the drawing board. This moment intersected with a Climate Action Movement meeting I went to recently, where I realized that out of the 30+ students at the meeting, I was the only student with a major involved in the arts or performance. As an InterArtist working in cross-disciplinary collaboration, looking for direct action work to be involved in, leadership in the movement wondered how we could create a fusion of direct action, performance, artifacts, and media. I knew that this is what my thesis could become: a series of interventions, made through bodies in space or video projected on the institutional landscape of Michigan, supported by a wide network of highly cross-disciplinary, existentially engaged makers united around a cause. By using the rich body of research already developed and working with the re-appropriation of UM’s historical engagement with direct action, climate, and justice, I can narrow this into a converged thesis: How can we pull from the University’s history of environmental justice and action to restage, contest, and project new futures to an administration that has so far refused to listen? How can performance and projection interventions informed by this history be used to make the administration listen? Going Forward: This week I’ll begin making video messaging for CAM along with diving deeper into the Bentley’s archives and artifacts surrounding CAM’s three pillars of their campaigns: commitment to just carbon neutrality by 2030 (so previous ecological activism), divestment from fossil fuel resources (and the decisions of UM to previously divest from tobacco and South African apartheid), and dropping charges on the 10 arrested climate activists from a peaceful sit-in. I’ve also reached out to WItness Lab’s facilitating artist, Courtney McClellan, and we’re schedulign a time to discuss integrating the trial phase of the climate activist’s charges into Witness Lab’s performance. There’s also the question of what to put in my studio or what to perform in the Duderstadt informed by this. A museum or archaeologically themed collection of works I’ll be making in the process of the campaign comes to mind, sticking to the aesthetic styles I’ve already been researching and using. A big upcoming day is December 5th - the regent’s meeting at the UM Golf Course, and CAM is planning a direct action. I’m in contact with Cynthia Pachikara about how to best achieve the large-scale projections necessary to intervene on the Postma Clubhouse, what might serve as screens at the site (the greens, trees, or Clubhouse itself). I’ll end off with a brief aerial survey I’ve made of the site in Google Earth Studio’s experimental animation suite, a new tool I haven’t used before, but may prove helpful in mapping large-scale projection intervention.

[skittelsen]

My Secret Origin as a Super-Fan

*This post is my personal story. It does not represent the opinions or views of NetherRealm Studios, WB Games, or DC Entertainment. 

What a week!

My first game as Narrative Lead, INJUSTICE 2, launched worldwide, and the response from fans and critics has been overwhelmingly positive—as in I feel overwhelmed by all the positivity. This week also marked the tenth anniversary of my NYU graduation. Finally, there’s the MOST important milestone of all, my son’s third birthday. For me, all these events are connected.

Of all the reactions to Injustice 2 out there, I love most when someone remarks that the people who made this game must really love DC Comics lore. Trust me, they do. Everyone on the I2 team has a favorite DC character, from the iconic to the obscure. My favorite is Superman.

It might come as a surprise that the Narrative Lead on a game in which Superman is portrayed as a lethal tyrant would profess to be a Superman fan, but I am. 

Here’s why. When I was about 4 years old, my parents told me that I was and would always be their son, but that I didn’t come out of Mommy’s tummy like my sister. I was adopted. My birth parents, whoever they were, couldn’t raise me, so they sent me away to find a family who could provide a better life for me.

This kind of news can really mess with a kid’s head. I was an indoorsy, deep-thinky emo boy, and I would dramatically stare into the bathroom mirror and wonder whose eyes were looking back at me. Fortunately, my Mom and Dad were a real life Ma and Pa Kent, equipped with big hearts to manage my drama. They loved my sister and I as much as any kids could be loved, and they never treated me any differently on account of my secret heritage. 

Superman: The Movie was on TV a lot in the 1980s. I don’t remember when, but at some point not long after my parents told me I was adopted, I made the connection that Superman was adopted. Superman was just like me! 

From then on, my personal identity as an adopted kid was still fraught with complications and insecurities, but it wasn’t always a source of trauma. In my mind, I had a secret origin, a source of strength. And how cool would it be if I found a spaceship buried in the basement? 

My parents reinforced this imaginative coping mechanism by indulging my every superhero fantasy. They took me to every comics and collectibles shop in upstate New York looking for special issues and rare action figures. Mom sewed more than one Superman cape (and a few Batman capes, too), and she and I binge-watched George Reeves in Adventures of Superman. For my 18th birthday, my Dad bought me the S-shield tattoo that’s still on my shoulder. A year later, he got the same S-shield tattoo on the same shoulder as me. He sat in the inker’s chair wincing from the needle, quoting Marlon Brando as Jor-El, “The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son!” 

Without my parents’ support, I may never have gone to Metropolis for college at NYU. They were so proud at my graduation, but I wasn’t proud yet. I wanted to be a writer, but instead, I found myself working as the Corporate Files Administrator at the HBO Legal Department and taking an LSAT prep course by night. I was lost. 

Then, two things happened that set me back on course. First, I was hired by an indie producer to write a screenplay, enabling me to quit my job at HBO. Second, at my wife’s urging, I sent a fan letter to one of my favorite writers, author and educator Douglas Rushkoff, asking if he needed any help.

They say don’t meet your heroes, but in Rushkoff, I found a mentor and a lifelong friend. Working as his editorial assistant was a dream come true. I learned more in one year working Rushkoff than I had in four years studying at NYU. 

Then my screenplay deal fell apart, the global economy tanked, and like a lot of recent college graduates, I faced the real possibility of going broke and moving back in with my parents. Rushkoff couldn’t pay me a full time salary, but he offered to help me get an inside track at DC. 

Applying for a job at DC Comics without a personal recommendation is like throwing rocks at the moon. For years, from sophomore year of college on, I had applied for every DC internship and entry-level position available. Never got a response. Rushkoff recommended me and I got a call from WB HR within a few hours. It certainly helped that I now had a few more bullets on the CV. It also may have helped that the person Rushkoff recommended me to was Paul Levitz, then President and Publisher of DC Comics.

An extensive interview process later, I was hired as Assistant Editor - Interactive at DC Comics. My family was with me when I got the phone call. We all went out for dinner and celebrated, and I got so drunk, I ate a bowl of unpeeled shrimp with the shells intact. That hurt in the morning, but it’s still one of my favorite memories.

Little did we know how much that job would change things. Less than a year after I started at DC, Paul Levitz stepped down and Diane Nelson arrived as President. DC Comics became DC Entertainment, and the office was split between New York and California. 

It was a great deal of change in a relatively short period of time for a company invested with decades of tradition. That made for a controversial and upsetting time for many of the employees who had been at DC for years. I had the benefit of being the newbie, and my wife grew up in California, so were were excited to relocate to Los Angeles, even though it meant leaving our beloved city and so many wonderful friends behind. I accepted my offer to join the new team in Burbank, and off we went.

Working at DC was a dream job. I considered my colleagues like family members, and I got to work with more talented creators than I can list here. One of my favorite collaborators, though, was NetherRealm Studios. 

Working with NRS on Injustice: Gods Among Us felt like a big deal. Mortal Kombat was a formative games franchise for me growing up, and the team was just coming off an amazing 2011 reboot of the MK franchise with an incredibly ambitious cinematic Story Mode. 

Plus, this would be the AAA game in which my favorite hero, Superman, could finally take center stage. He would be the villain of the story, but a villain motivated by good intentions in response to a horrific tragedy. 

The results were nothing short of awesome. From that first game through five years of comics and a blockbuster mobile adaptation, the Injustice universe took off like a bullet train. 

I left DC before Injustice launched. It was a dream job, to be sure, but I still had that other dream of being a writer, and for HR reasons, that wasn’t possible while I was a DC employee. So when a Burbank creative agency offered me a leadership role, a better salary, and the freedom to write for anyone I wanted, I knew it was time to go.

Leaving DC felt like a big risk. It doesn’t get bigger than Superman. What would I find in the great beyond? But after getting comfortable in my position at DC, disrupting my routine and transitioning to games marketing was a challenge I needed. My partners and I built a crack team of creatives and account managers. That team pitched and executed campaigns for clients all over the world, and went on to win award after award after award. 

My risky marketing venture was now a successful career. It was possible to envision a future where I never wrote again, living comfortably off all those marketing dollars. I had co-written a screenplay since leaving DC, but apart from that, I no longer made the time to write. My wife was pregnant, we’d just a bought a house, and I was traveling on a weekly basis. There were only so many hours in the day, and I needed to make those hours profitable.

But all the money in the world couldn’t fulfill my goal to be a writer. It was at this time that some close friends challenged me to write. Well, not just to write, but to finish something. One comics editor friend put it to me, “If you can’t write a 12-page backup, what can you write?” That put the fire in me. So I wrote a short story that editor, then a short story for another. Then I sold an original comic series (still upcoming!). And then I got a call from an old colleague.

At DC, I worked with an incredible woman named Victoria Setian, or as we call her, Tory. She had been part of Team Interactive with me, and since I’d left DC, she’d also moved, across the street to WB Games, where she was a budding producer on Mortal Kombat X, which of course was being made by some of our favorite developers, NetherRealm Studios.

Tory asked if I wanted to throw in a pitch for an MKX comic series. I knew the lore, I knew the team, what did I have to lose? So, in between agency work and preparing for a new baby, I wrote my pitch.

Then my son was born. A big deal for anyone, an extra big deal for an adopted person who’s never laid eyes on a blood relative before. My son opened his eyes, and for the first time, I saw myself in another human being. The experience was psychedelic. Becoming a father profoundly changed me in ways I’m still figuring out.

Everyone who knew me knew that I wanted to name a son “Clark” someday. Didn’t want to force that on my wife, though, so we came up with an alternative name, and she picked from both names once she saw the baby and got a sense of his personality. He was quiet for a newborn, a little gentleman, she said. She named him Clark Eric, taking his middle name from my father, which was an added surprise. Suffice it to say there wasn’t a dry eye among the Kittelsen men that morning.

The call from my editor at DC came that week while I was still home with the family. I got the gig. How soon could I turn around a new outline?

Thus began the most difficult summer of my life. New house, new baby, new writing gig, and I still had to pitch, travel, and manage the creative team for the agency. There was pressure coming at me from every direction. I became depressed. Something had to give.

Alan Moore gave an interview once where he talked about taking the leap to freelance. He came home to tell his wife he was quitting his industrial job, but when he got there, she told him she was pregnant, so he went back to work. But in time it occurred to him that no matter how poor his writing career might make the family, the baby would survive. They’d find a way. The only question was, would the baby grow up with new shoes and a miserable father who resents his lot in life, or with secondhand shoes and a father who can honestly tell that child she can be anything she wants to be.

This was the choice I faced. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make it alone. I had my wife, my partner, to work it out with me. She drafted a household budget, figured out how lean we could live, how long we might survive, and together we put together Humble Wordsmith, LLC, my freelance business.

I quit the agency job, reduced my monthly expenses to bare minimums, and started working from home. Beyond the comics, I had freelance gigs as a copywriter, a marketing consultant, whatever I could get paid to do. I busted my hump, but no matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to build momentum. That first year, our household income went down by over 75%. 

Things picked up a bit when I got hired by WB Games to write story and in-game content for the DC Legends mobile game. With that under my belt, I looked for more games writing gigs, but they were hard to come by. I focused more of my time on Feral Audio, a start-up podcast network was growing steadily. 

That’s when I got another call from another old colleague, Senior Producer Adam Urbano. NetherRealm Studios was looking for a writer to join their team and work on the story for Injustice 2. Would I be interested and available? After years of working with NRS on various projects in various capacities, this was the ultimate compliment.

The rest, as they say, is history. Writing for the game is the best dream job I’ve ever had the privilege of working. There was so much work to be done, I handed off my Feral Audio duties to my partners at the network. For the first time since I graduated from college, I could focus on one job title: Writer.

Becoming a father was wonderful but disruptive. Writers are selfish people, we like having lots of time to ourselves to “think” and “be creative” and sometimes even to write. But I can’t be selfish anymore. So with each year since I started freelancing, I’ve worked harder at balancing my family life with my work. The more quality time I spend as a Dad, the more fulfilled I become. I’ve been around for all Clark’s achievements, from walking to talking to his first tantrum. At the agency, I feared I would miss all those priceless memories. Now I have a treasure trove.

As if all this weren’t enough, there was one more surprise waiting for me in the lead-up to launching Injustice 2. 

**MINOR I2 SPOILER WARNING** In the game, Superman meets his cousin, Supergirl, for the first time. It’s the first time he’s ever laid eyes on a blood relative. The first time he sees himself in someone else. Just like the first time I saw Clark.

Writing that scene was obviously somewhat personal and emotional for me. Now, a couple years later, I get to live that scene out for myself.

See, ever since my wife became pregnant, I’ve been taking DNA tests, trying to decode my secret origin. They never yielded any close results, but the ethnographic results they provided me were interesting, and I never knew what they could yield, so I kept taking them. Then, just this March, I got a match to a distant cousin. On a lark, I sent her my adoption info, and within hours, she sent me the name of my maternal grandfather. Then we found my grandmother.

We did not find my birth mother. In a soap opera twist, my birth mother was given up for adoption, just like me, so her identity is still a mystery. But I can’t complain. I’ve found new uncles, aunts, and cousins, they’ve welcomed me to the family with open arms, and they want to help find my birth mother. 

By finding the birth family my mother never knew, I’ve found another missing piece of myself. Now I can look in the mirror and see the pieces I gave to Clark, as well as the pieces my grandparents gave to me. Sometime soon I’m going to meet my cousins in person for the first time, four Supergirls who share my blood. The game becomes the writer, and the writer becomes the game.

So there it is. My life story as a Superman fan, a writer, and a father. This week I got to celebrate as all three. Remember when I said I graduated from college and my parents were proud of me, but I wasn’t proud of me? I’m proud of me now. I just checked off my bucket list by the dozen.

How am I possibly going to top this experience? I’ll have to figure that out. For now, I’m going to savor this moment with gratitude and satisfaction. After 10 years of professional ups and downs and always searching for the next opportunity, I’m happy where I am, and on the whole, I think it’s just swell. ;)

[emilysmithfdm]

OVERVIEW OF MY ROLE AT MASTER DEBONAIR

JULY

-      Styling looks for shoots

-      Stock Take in the studio

-      Tidy Studio

-      Developed three looks for the ‘What would Tommy Shelby wear today’ Blog Post

-      Used Canva to create Blog Posts

-‘What Would Tommy Shelby Wear Today’

-‘How To Master Summer Smart/Casual’

-      Added buttons to Blog Posts to push product selling

-      Casual Shoot at East Boldon Shop

-      Wrote notes on the weekly Monday Marketing meeting to discuss potential new ideas for the business

-      Completed Flat Lays and Videos of the new womens shirts released and Casual Looks, along with video footage of the Shirts.

-      Flat Lays of the sale Blazers to push them on social.

-      Handled customer service calls with the team.

-      Took part in a Prom Fair trial run through organising children to meet the demands of the brief, took the children’s sizes so they can each wear on of our suits on the specific night.

-      Studio shooting 4 essential summer looks, dressing the model and organising/steaming the looks to a professional standard. Liaising with the warehouse team to pull together the right sizes in each look for the shoot.

AUGUST

-      Shot the ‘Father and Son’ photoshoot at the shop to display the matching adult and child suits.

-       Completed ‘How a Suit Should Fit’ video content for the website. Got all sizes of each suit for the model from warehouse, added blog content to go along the video.

-      Completed a flat lay mood board and my own flat lay outfits inspired by this

-      After my first month I had the task of styling three outfits on my own and pinning the suit in places it needed to be, and pinching the waistcoat in with a clip

-       in order to fit properly for the shoot.

-      Resized photos into banner size for the blog on the website.

-      Completed Instagram Stories advertising the Blog posts written.

-      Tidy studio

-      Steam products for upcoming shoots

-      Published first blog post ‘How to master summer smart/casual’.

-      Worked with another company ‘Wedding Sparrow’ to create a piece on Master Debonair for their website.

-      Resize images.

-      Published ‘What would the Modern-Day Tommy Shelby Wear?’

-      Completed a Blog Post on the new Jenson suit which came in to promote the suit and attract people to buying it.

SEPTEMBER

-      Product tagging on the Instagram page so people can shop the looks they see easily.

-      Completed the ‘5 Reasons to Attend The Newcastle Wedding Fair’ Blog Post. Created on Instagram story to promote it.

-      Started upsells for the website for each product advising the customers what to wear with the chosen product.

-      Wrote notes from the Weekly Roundup Meeting.

-      Gathered new Pitti Uomo Pictures from Pinterest and refreshed the office window with photos of the best looks from the latest event.

-      Wrote and published the ‘Exploring Suit Colour’ Blog Post.

-      Instagram Product tagging.

-      Getting products ready ahead of time for all upcoming shoots, including de tagging, streaming and organising them into looks.

-      Completed ‘What to consider when having a suit tailored’ Blog Post.

-      Did an Instagram Story Series ‘Style inspiration from our customers this week’

-      Helped reshoot the shoes, taking photos of the products ready for them to be uploaded onto the site.

-      Collected all ties and pocket squares needed for new reshoot next Tuesday.

-      Worked with a work experience individual who would help me complete selected tasks I had been asked to work on.

-      Got all product ready for the A/W shooting of products, different sizes for different models and all steamed and prepped for each day.

-      Wrote and Published ‘Master Debonair At Drapers Independent Awards 2019’ Blog Post.

-      ‘Big Guy’ shoot to show variation in the suits and broaden the customer base.

-      Completed the ‘How To Dress For Your Shape’ Blog Post and published it.

-      Contacted Wedding Fair Events team to allow us to exhibit our collection in upcoming wedding fair events.

-      Contacted a Brand about working alongside them and provided details of things they wanted to know.

-      Analysing competitors Blog Posts to see the current trends in this area.

-      Shooting ecom for the ‘Get the Look’ page and product shots.

-      Travelled to a location to see if it was suitable for one of our shoots or not.

-      Collected, steamed and de tagged all product for casual shoot.

OCTOBER

-      I styled 4 looks for the Casual Collection shoot in the studio.

-      Corbridge for the Casual Shoot, I took care of the model’s outfits, getting then changed into the correct products, 16 looks for the day. Created BTS content on the day whilst being out and about in Corbridge.

-      Emptied the van of all products, repackaged and sent back to the warehouse.

-      Steamed new product for shoot.

-      Notes for the ‘Marketing Meeting’ and ‘Weekly Round-up’.

-      Transported an outfit to the East Boldon Shop for a model picking it up later in the day.

-      Got products ready for the ‘Black Friday Shoot’ at Fire & Co.

-      Shot Black Friday Campaign at Fire & Co as Flat Lays.

-      Updated ‘Power’ Blog with relevant and newer stock.

-      Created an FAQ’s page for the website.

-      Filtered through Blog Posts and deleted any non-relevant ones from the website.

-      Instagram Product Tagging

-      On set for the Own Brand A/W Shoot taking care of models, outfits, video.

-      Worked on and Published ‘The Gentlemen’ Blog Post.

-      Prepared Barbour accessories for shoot, stuffed bags.

-      Shot accessorie Flat Lays with the photographer.

-      Assisted on ‘Big Guys’ Shoot in Tyne Tunnel.

-      Shooting in the shop to promote the new flock shirts in stock, showcasing how they can be layered under some of our other products. Styled by me.

NOVEMBER

-      Styled 10 casual looks from the A/W range for the Peaky Blinder Ball, created a plan of the looks digitally. Approved by Head Stylist.

-      Pulled sizes for the Peaky Blinder Ball, steamed and styled with footwear, pocket watches and flatcaps.

-      Styled together 10 smart looks for the same Peaky Blinder Ball in a styling plan, pulled all model sizes needed, created name tags with product pictures and models name to clearly display which look is for who as I wasn’t going to be able to attend the Ball myself.

-      Marketing meeting minutes taken and in discussion.

-      Ecom shoot to promote the New Cavani Sage Suit and Barbour womens accessories modelled by me.

-      Shot boys suit in the studio on model.

-      My Blog Post ‘What would the Modern Day Tommy Shelby wear?’ is the highest clicked through Blog reaching 8,484 visits/reads compared to the second highest with only 4,000.

-      Updated all social posts, tagging each product into the photo so they become shoppable.

-      Created a models size sheet for the business so it is easier to pull products for shoots.

-      Planned out 4 looks for the Wedding Campaign with Head Stylist.

-      Created a ‘Christmas Night’ Poster Invite for the East Boldon shop.

-      Completed invite for the Chesterfield Opening Invite. Created a separate E-invite.

-      Created another invite for the Op + Tom and Master Debonair night.

-      Took social flat shots and videos of the new Monti Belts.

-      Shot Flat of new footwear.

-      Completed Flat Lays of outfits with the Coats in to promote them.

-      Went into Newcastle to buy boys brogues for the Wedding Shoot coming up.

-      Pulled the products into the correct outfits for each person for the wedding shoot. Including footwear and accessories.

-      Labelled Looks and Model name to help on the day.

-      Shot at Eshott Hall. Got the 11 models changed, steamed the shirts along the way, got some BTS from the shoot onto social.

-      Had a team meeting to discuss efficiency.

-      Tidied the studio.

-      Edited Winter Warmer Invite.

-      Pulled all Christmas Flats for shoot. Packed the van. Went to the shoot at Slayley Hall, helped with the presentation of the Flats ready to be photographed.

DECEMBER

-      Completed Wedding Appointments Poster for the shops.

-      Taking Monday Meeting Notes

-      Went to the Homeless Shelter to give in clothes and toiletries.

-      Got products ready for the Op + Tom and Master Debonair Launch Night.

-      Looked at new Blog Ideas and online competition.

-      Styled 5 looks for the Party edit. Brought props to go alongside the theme. Styled the outfits on the day focusing on the details of the outfits and how they looked. Completed a Blog Post to go alongside the looks. Wrote the products down to send to the Digital Marketer to create the ‘Get the Look’ page.

-      Made our 2020/2021 Wedding Brochure. Started with designing the pages, figured out what I wanted on each page, worked closely alongside the brief I was given, edited Brochure going back and forth between my product and the Creative Director to complete the desired outcome.

JANUARY

-      Monday Marketing and Weekly Round-Up meetings minutes.

-      Shooting products for the ‘Big Guys’ section on the website.

-      Made finishing touches to the Wedding Brochure ready to be completed.

-      Pulled products from the shop which were struggling to sell online and made Flat Lay Outfits from these to promote them.

-      Styled two looks for an upcoming ‘Jewel’ themed shoot taking place with ‘Tie The Knot’ in Scotland.

-      Styled the Creative Content Joe, for his videos and got involved in shooting for socials keeping an eye on attention to detail in his outfits.

-      Researched this years Pitti Uomo and put together a mood board of my favourite looks as inspiration for the whole team on the office window.

[dippedanddripped]

For the past year, there have been two sides to Nike: the brand it advertises and the company culture behind it. The brand has identified women as one of "four epic growth opportunities" and lauded its progress in the market. At the same time, shadows have persistently broken through the retailer's sunny picture, in the form of gender inequality assertions.

The company has faced public scrutiny related to how it treats women. A class action lawsuit alleging that Nike does not give women equal pay or advancement opportunities was filed last August, and earlier this year, a former Nike-sponsored athlete, Alysia Montaño, wrote an opinion in the New York Times that asserted Nike was deficient in its support for pregnant athletes.

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While both of these events took place within the past two years, the company has not suffered any financial penalty in the women's space. CEO Mark Parker said at the end of fiscal 2019 that the business had grown in double digits.

"It's hard to overstate how important this year has been to the evolution of the women's offense at Nike," Parker said in a conference call with analysts at the time.

Nike Global Corporate Communications Director Sandra Carreon-John added in an email to Retail Dive that the brand has been "championing female athletes for more than 40 years, and we continue to see incredible momentum for women in sport as athletes — elite and everyday. We are more committed than ever to leverage our brand as a catalyst, celebrating athletes, supporting sports and building the best products for her."

In the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, the number of female Nike employees signed on to a class action suit continued to grow.

Strength in numbers

Kelly Cahill and Sara Johnston last August filed a class action lawsuit against Nike alleging sex discrimination. In court documents, they detailed problematic incidents between male and female co-workers, and called out an alleged boys club culture that led, they said, to the promotion of male employees despite numerous complaints to Nike's human resources department.

Carreon-John said Nike is not commenting on pending litigation, but added that the company "opposes discrimination of any type and has a long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion. We are committed to competitive pay and benefits for our employees. The vast majority of Nike employees live by our values of dignity and respect for others."

"We are committed to competitive pay and benefits for our employees. The vast majority of Nike employees live by our values of dignity and respect for others."

Sandra Carreon-John

Nike Global Corporate Communications Director

In court documents Cahill and Johnston alleged women had been called names and faced the use of slurs and demeaning language while the men around them were promoted. The claims marked the peak of a brand crisis that started when some of Nike's female employees surveyed other women at the company about their experiences and left the results on Parker's desk.

In May 2018, Parker issued a mass apology to employees at the company for the toxic culture, after a slew of executives left beginning in March. The brand promoted two female executives shortly after those departures and raised salaries for 10% of employees in July. That was followed by the lawsuit in August.

A year later, that same lawsuit is rolling on, with a growing number of plaintiffs, who each have their own stories of pay and advancement inequality to tell.

Nike employee Heather Hender said she was paid less than a male employee in a similar role, who was given a higher title than her despite doing similar work. Donna Olson, a security manager at Nike, said she was denied promotion to a director position that was then given to her replacement after she retired.

Some stories are more telling than others.

"After I received the pay raise, I mentioned it to a manager and her response implied that at least one male counterpart on my team, who performed substantially similar work, had been paid more than me for 'awhile now.'"

Cindy Lea Linebaugh, according to court documents

Cindy Lea Linebaugh, for example, said in court documents that she received an off-cycle pay raise of 9% two months after the original lawsuit was filed, despite no real change in responsibilities.

"After I received the pay raise, I mentioned it to a manager and her response implied that at least one male counterpart on my team, who performed substantially similar work, had been paid more than me for 'awhile now,'" the document reads.

Another employee, Meghan Grieve, signed on to the lawsuit and detailed how she found out a male colleague had a starting salary $12,000 higher than hers, which Nike refused to match. After she joined the lawsuit, however, the company granted her the raise. She subsequently opted out of the class-action suit.

Other women that signed on to the action corroborated claims made in the lawsuit about employees and said women were put on corrective action plans for unfounded reasons. Former employee Paige Azavedo claimed her manager did not support her and that she witnessed him berate other women.

"While at Nike, I experienced a good old boy culture, where men gave the most desirable work to other men, and mostly spent time with other men, excluding women coworkers," the document reads. "Finally, I saw other women on my team being targeted by their male supervisors. Other women on my team were placed on corrective action plans due to supposed 'behavioral issues,' which were not reported or documented."

A different brand story

In the midst of these complaints, the company continues to depict Nike as a brand that supports women and to feature strong female athletes in marketing campaigns.

In the company's Dream Crazier ad, Nike takes an inspirational tone by calling out hurdles that women face in a professional sports environment, while featuring a host of accomplished female athletes and footage of iconic sports moments.

"If we show emotion, we're called dramatic," tennis star Serena Williams says in the narration. "If we want to play against men, we're nuts. And if we dream of equal opportunity, delusional."

The ad details previous "crazy" moments women have overcome — a woman running a marathon for the first time, dunking for the first time, boxing — and it ends with a call to action spoken by one of the most famous athletes of her day: "So if they want to call you crazy, fine. Show them what crazy can do."

The Dream Crazy campaign has been well received in the marketing space. The original campaign, which launched with Colin Kaepernick in September, won the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes this year.

Nike is the number one women's activewear brand, according to data from the NPD Group. The brand has done a great deal to serve the women's market by partnering with strong brand ambassadors, putting out compelling brand campaigns, and creating product where others have failed to provide it. The retailer invested more time and energy into the sneaker business for women in 2018, an acknowledgment that the space wasn't paying enough attention to women.

Nike has also created products for underserved audiences through inclusive sizing efforts and, for example, Muslim female athletes, with the debut of the Pro Hijab. The company also points to its efforts to support professional women's athletics leagues, including the National Women's Soccer League and the Women's National Basketball Association, and its efforts to improve fit on women's clothing. The U.S. Women's National Team home jersey was the best selling soccer jersey, men's or women's, on the company's website in one season.

But it's exactly that contrast that the class action suit is trying to combat, plaintiffs' attorney Laura Salerno Owens of Markowitz Herbold told Retail Dive.

"The way Nike marginalizes women at its headquarters is completely contrary to how it portrays itself to its customers as valuing women in sports and the importance of providing equal opportunity to play," she wrote in a statement to Retail Dive. "To echo Nike's recent ad campaign, we don't believe it's 'crazy' for women to dream of equal pay for equal work."

"There's the exterior-facing part of Nike and then there's what really happens behind closed doors and that's really what we're seeking to change."

Anna Joyce

Partner with Markowitz Herbold

Anna Joyce, a partner with Markowitz Herbold who helped draft the complaint, echoed those sentiments in speaking with Retail Dive last year, specifically around the brand's powerful lineup of brand ambassadors.

"She is a phenomenally strong woman," Joyce said of Williams and her partnership with Nike. "So I think there's the exterior-facing part of Nike and then there's what really happens behind closed doors and that's really what we're seeking to change."

For her part, Montaño is trying to change how Nike behaves toward the women it works with. Her complaints about the treatment of pregnant athletes were followed by an announcement from Nike that it was changing its policies. In a statement on its website, Nike said that the company standardized its approach to "support our female athletes during pregnancy," but acknowledged that "we can go even further." Nike said in its statement that contracts for female athletes will now have written terms in them relating to the company's policy around pregnancy.

"We want to make it clear today that we support women as they decide how to be both great mothers and great athletes," the statement reads. "We recognize we can do more and that there is an important opportunity for the sports industry to evolve to support female athletes."

Carreon-John added that, "in addition to our 2018 policy standardizing our approach across all sports to ensure no female athlete is adversely impacted financially for pregnancy, the policy has now been expanded to cover 18 months."

Why is Nike in the clear?

So how has Nike made it through missteps that might have shattered a smaller company? According to Susan Anderson, managing director and senior equity research analyst at B. Riley FBR, part of it is how the company handled issues like the class action lawsuit.

"That was such a huge scandal … But they did a pretty good job, kind of, fixing it, or at least making it look like they were improving things," she said of the class action.

Consumers were also watching, but the amount that they care about such things, especially once they've faded out of the daily news cycle, is less certain. Anderson noted that if consumers really like a retailer's product, they're unlikely to change brands, "unless the company hasn't moved in the right direction."

"Are they really going to change their purchase habits? A lot of companies are probably guilty of all those things, right?" she said.

Acting as a buffer of sorts to Nike has been the fact that so many other companies are also facing corporate culture scandals, with varied levels of significance. In June 2018, Guess Executive Chairman Paul Marciano resigned following an investigation into his conduct, though he later was appointed the brand's chief creative officer. In February, REI CEO Jerry Stritzke stepped down from his position following reports he had an undisclosed relationship with an executive of another company the retailer had some dealings with.

"I think the consumer really understands that these issues are really just the face of every company out there. I think what they're looking for is: What action is being taken?"

Matt Powell

Vice President and Senior Industry Adviser of Sports for The NPD Group

But athletics retail has been the most notorious in the past few years for churning out brand scandals. In February 2018, Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin resigned following conduct issues, while in December the same year, Under Armour fired two executives after an internal review of spending. Chief among the problems was a culture that allowed executives to charge gambling and adult entertainment to corporate cards.

What may in isolation have been considered damaging issues limited to a single brand, viewed together raise questions about systemic corporate culture issues in the industry.

"I think the consumer really understands that these issues are really just the face of every company out there. I think what they're looking for is: What action is being taken? Are inequities being resolved as quickly as possible? That may be the most important thing is for brands to just make sure that when things are surfaced that they're fixing them as quickly as they can," Matt Powell, vice president and senior industry adviser of sports for The NPD Group, said in an interview. In that sense, Powell argued, it doesn't necessarily matter which brand is under fire as long as they're handling it correctly.

It's hard to ignore that Nike is, well, Nike.

A few challenges to Nike's reputation aren't likely to knock it out of its top position, especially if the company keeps delivering high quality products that hit on the trends consumers want. Brands with less cache, or a more inconsistent performance, could be more likely to suffer.

Still, the women's business at Nike is dwarfed by the size of the men's. In fiscal 2019, women's made up $7.4 billion of the retailer's wholesale business revenues, compared to the $17.7 billion it racked up from men's sales. Nike Kids was only $2 billion smaller than the women's segment over the same time frame.

There's a lot of space for female-focused athletic brands to swoop in. To some extent, they already have. According to NPD's Powell, Lululemon grew faster than Nike in the U.S. last year and will surpass Nike as the top women's brand if the current trajectory holds.

In other words, the biggest threat to Nike's dominance might be how fast Lululemon grows its business, not how Nike deals with its brand image.

#nike #womens sportswear #streetwear blog #fashion blog

[dorothydelgadillo]

#EmbracingTheStruggle of Public Speaking for the First Time

My last thought before walking out on the IMPACT Live stage was, "[INSERT INAPPROPRIATE WORD], I don't want to do this!"

And then my fellow teammate, Dan Baum told me it was too late for that and guided me on stage where our CEO, Bob had just called my name and hundreds of people were waiting for me to speak. 

This is the story of everything that led up to that moment...

A few months back we did an episode called "Where Are All the Women Speakers?"

Angela, Brie, and I had come across some research that showed men are by and large owning the speaking gig and of course, we thought that was hogwash and said as much during our show. 

Two weeks later, during a visit to HQ in Connecticut, Bob asked me if I would speak at our upcoming event, IMPACT Live. 

IMPACT Live '18 was the second annual event under its name.

Though previous years IMPACT had been hosting events, IMPACT Live was our stand-out, intentional community building event.  

So I, of course, said yes!

A major part of my role here at IMPACT is to not only guide and direct my clients' strategy in marketing, sales, and business but to create my own personal brand. 

It is my job to not just reach the clients and team members I speak with every week, but to influence the greater marketing-world about the successes and lessons I'm learning with each new campaign and tactic. 

No pressure, right? 

My first thought when Bob asked me to speak was that he'd want me to discuss ABM, nurturing funnels, user mapping, or any number of cool things we've been working on for clients. 

But, that's not what he asked. 

Bob asked me to speak to the audience at IMPACT Live about what high-performing marketers need and expect from their companies. 

Whoa. 

I instantly loved the topic and was deeply honored that he trusted me enough to share this information - as it's so critical. 

The Prep or Lack There Of

Having never spoken to more than a group of 8-10 in a client call before, I had no idea how to prepare for this type of event. 

I spent the first few weeks widdling away at some notes and then reviewing them with Bob.

I knew I was heading in the right direction, so I mentally put the whole thing on the back burner as we went into our busy summer season (a.k.a. when our chickens FINALLY started laying eggs!).

We also made a pretty major shift in our organization in client services at IMPACT at the same time, so I focused on supporting my team through that, the speech, I figured, would take care of itself. 

Time to Meet With Marcus

Can we all just take just a moment so I can Fan Girl Freak Out over the fact that I get to work alongside Marcus Sheridan?! 

Okay, I'm done. 

But, seriously - he is simply wonderful, so generous with his knowledge, and a wonderful coach. 

Since many of us at IMPACT Live 2018 were first-time or still young speakers, we all had the opportunity to schedule time with Marcus to review our speeches. 

I was especially nervous, not because he's Marcus Sheridan, but because I'm incredibly passionate about the topic of high-performers and my speech is actually the public debut of a theory that I've been forming together with Stacy Willis for the last year. 

The importance of not only communicating effectively to the audience but ensuring what was shared is accurate and actually helpful for the people attending was not lost on me.

Plus, I hadn't really mentally devoted time to it for weeks and the pressure to get it right was on.  

I spent all of Saturday at our local coffee shop Googling things like:

How to write a speech

How to write a speech that doesn't suck

How to not make a fool of yourself on stage

How to convince yourself that you should be on stage

Dakota Hersey, a fabulous Account Executive here shared notes from an INBOUND session a few years ago that Tamsen Webster did and her resources ended up answering every single question above.  

Using Tamsen's guide, I had a pretty solid outline of what I want to say on stage.

Actually, her outline even ended up becoming the foundation of a major section of the manuscript Stacy and I are co-writing on the topic of high-performers, but I digress.  The same Saturday that I ended up restructuring everything I had been working on, I presented the concept to Marcus. 

Leaving that meeting with him, I felt so empowered.

He had wonderful insight on how best to present the information on stage and really helped me see that I was having a conversation on stage, not talking to a room full of car test dummies. 

Soliciting Feedback

Honestly, in the weeks and even days leading up to the event, I wasn't super nervous.

I wanted to first make sure that my logic, data, and opinions were solid. 

I met with Stacy, Dakota, and a few other team members I highly respect and knew would challenge me much, in the same way, someone hearing this for the first time might. 

Each person I met with gave me a little more confidence that I had something worthwhile to share.

Seeing their faces light up and get excited about the things I was sharing was so cool. They also gave me invaluable tips like: 

Don't talk too fast (I do this normally) 

Give actionable items

Don't introduce too many concepts at once

Be yourself, yes, really, just be yourself

I'm so glad I spent this time crowdsourcing ideas, feedback, and insights!

An Interesting Observation

Both nights of IMPACT Live we hosted Happy Hours.

These weren't any ordinary Happy Hours; These were the type that had you standing RIGHT NEXT to the speakers whose books you've read and keynotes you've watched -- Speakers like Ann Handley, David Meerman Scott, Dharmesh Shah, and Paul Roetzer. 

Let's talk about Ann Handley for just a moment. 

This woman is whom I want to be when I grow up. Smart, funny, approachable, direct, and really incredibly likable. I could listen to her talk about shades of blue for hours. 

She was the keynote for the first full day of IMPACT Live and she had all of us hooked from the moment she danced on stage in her Party Pants. 

I had noticed the night before her keynote though that she was slightly more reserved than the person I watched bring concepts to life on stage. 

She was still just as approachable and kind, but maybe a little more reserved? Actually, Ann was so great she went LIVE with us during one of the Happy Hours and discussed this very thing! Check it out here:

Interestingly, I noticed the same about Marcus Sheridan.

I asked him about it and he shared that, as a speaker, you are giving so much of yourself on stage, that some speakers prepare by going inward ahead of their talks...Even the most experienced ones. 

While I thought that was cool, I figured I didn't really know what that meant and totally forgot about the conversation until I woke up the morning of my speech. 

It's Show Time! 

I woke up on Wednesday morning definitely inward.

That's so weird to type, but it's true. I wasn't really in the mood to talk to a lot of people, even the ones I love, so I took extra time getting ready at the hotel. 

I ran through my speech a few times before leaving the hotel, but doing that made me feel worse because both times I was three minutes OVER my time slot. Ugh. 

As soon as I got to the venue, I went back to the green room and spent time with one of my favorite people in the world, Kyle Sheldon. Kyle is a developer here at IMPACT and over my time here, we've become close. 

He listened to me, told me to suck it up, and told me he knew I would kill it. 

If you're preparing to do something terrifying like this, I suggest you surround yourself with people like Kyle. 

Roughly 30-minutes before I was needed on stage, my husband text me this image:

  That, my friend, is the picture my nine-year-old daughter made me for good luck. Cue the tears. 

Then, it was showtime. 

Getting mic'd and being backstage for the first time is indescribable.

You're preparing to do something that you've never done before, saying things that might make people uncomfortable. If you're like me, your boss put his trust in you and you have this one shot to get it right. No retakes, no reshoots, just this one shot. 

Anyone else hear Eminem in their heads right now? 

And Then It Was Over

I walked out on stage toward Bob's hug, took my shoes off, and started talking. 

In what seemed like .003 seconds, it was over. 

I had hit every major point I intended!

The audience was engaged; They even laughed -- and I had 30 seconds to spare!

I did it.

I spoke in front of hundreds of people and didn't pass out. 

When I walked off stage, I found Kaitlyn Petro, an IMPACT Account Executive I've also developed a deep friendship with, waiting with her arms open. 

Speaking was incredible. I want to do it again. And again. And again. 

The most impactful thing I walked away from this experience with, though, is how supported I am here at IMPACT and in our community. 

Every person I spoke to helped mold what I would say on stage.

My tribe was there and I've never felt more connected to a team like this in my career. 

From Bob putting his faith in me and giving me this opportunity to Marcus being so generous with his time, to Jason Linde, our PPC Specialist, recording my speech so that my husband could see. 

This experience is one I will never forget and I can not wait to polish my speaking skills, refine my message, and help Ann Handley, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bréne Brown bring more women to the stage. 

We'll be back next week with a normal episode, but in the meantime, if you have some tips, email us at [email protected]. We will share it on our Facebook page!! 

Listen to the Episode on iTunes

Stay Connected, Get Engaged! 

First, subscribe to MarketHer on iTunes.

Second, have a question or an idea for a future episode of the podcast? Let us know by commenting below, subscribe to our playlist on YouTube, connect with us directly on our channels below or send us an email.

Angela: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram Britt: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook Brie: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

[NEW] MarketHer Official: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (also Snapchat IMPACTMarketHer)

Or, you can leave us a comment below! Until next week...

We Listened, You Heard, Now, Go MarketHER!

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/public-speaking-for-the-first-time-markether

[rockrevoltmagazine]

JULIEN-K Release Official Music Video for "Photo Voltaire"

Long Beach, CA based Indietronic band JULIEN-K has released the official music video for their single, “Photo Voltaire.”. Originally premiered on Tattoo.com, “Photo Voltaire” is off of their 2015 released California Noir

JULIEN-K are also currently running an Indiegogo campaign to fund their upcoming LP, Harmonic Disruptor.

“‘Photo Voltaire’ is very much a song about the struggle in our lives as artists – and for once, about a victory. I thought of the concept for the song lyrics and meaning one day at 5AM, prepping my board at the beach to surf in CA_X, and the unfinished version of the song we had been playing with for months but could not ‘solve’ was solved immediately by the sun exploding over the ocean line @ nearly 6am …. The concept ‘Photo Voltaire’ – the explosion of the sun in my own words – and the chorus popped into my head. This has been an analog for the band ever since. All the touring, crowdfunding, fan support, and so much more that has happened for us since we gave in to total honesty and authenticity. Our fans connect with this and us. All the opportunities – it’s like the sun exploding out of nowhere in our lives.” – Julien-K

Tour Dates: 07/07 NV @ Beauty Bar – Las Vegas, NV 07/08 @ Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT 07/09 @ Mesa Theatre – Grand Junction, CO 07/10 @ Silver Spur Saloon – Lakewood, CO 07/12 @ The Elbow Room – Wichita, KS 07/13 @ Aftershock Live Music Venue – Merriam, KS 07/15 @ Amsterdam Bar – Saint Paul, MN 07/18 @ Municipal Auditorium – Nashville, TN 07/19 @ Diamond Pub Concert Hall – Louisville, KY 07/20 @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Center – Noblesville, IN 07/21 @ KeyBank Pavilion- Burgettstown, PA 07/22 @ Rose Music Center – Huber Heights, OH 07/24 @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill – Sterling Heights, MI 07/25 @ Budweiser Stage – Toronto, ON 07/26 @ Rough Trade – Brooklyn, NY 07/27 @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater – Wantagh, NY 07/28 @ PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ 07/29 @ The Vault at Greasy Luck Brewpub – New Bedford, MA 07/30 @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion – Boston, MA 08/01 @ Mark Etess Arena at Hard Rock Casino – Atlantic City, NJ 08/02 @ Voltage Lounge – Philadelphia, PA 08/03 @ The Fish Head Cantina – Halethorpe, MD 08/04 @ The Stage at Karma – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Stage at Karma 08/06 @ Purgatory at The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA 08/09 @ Scout Bar – Houston, TX 08/10 @ Rock Box – San Antonio, TX 08/11 @ Trees – Dallas, TX 08/12 @ Rock House – El Paso, TX 08/13 @ The Quarry Bisbee – Bisbee, AZ 08/14 @ Club Red – Mesa, AZ 08/15 @ Whisky A Go Go – West Hollywood, CA Click HERE for Additional Dates

Track List:

Chapter One: Analog Beaches & Digital Cities 1. Analog Beaches & Digital Cities 2.Strange Invisible 3. Photo Voltaire 4. California Noir 5. Black Market Machines 6. Deep Beat Overground 7. Cast Into the Sea 8. She’s the Pretender 9. No You Can’t 10. Eviscerate

Chapter Two: Nightlife In Neon 1. Signals in the Void 2. Spectromeda 3. Dossier 4. Sunset Life 5. Mannequin Eyes 6. Corrections 7. Solar 8. Institution 9. Dark Cadence 10. Framework 11. Temple 12. Nightlife in Neon

Stream / Download California Noir:

iTunes | Amazon MP3 | Spotify

Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck have been musical partners for 15+ years. During their time together they have weaved in and out of mainstream music like a constantly evolving musical fashion house. In the late 90’s they were responsible for massive radio and sales hits such as “Blind” (Korn), “Blue Monday,” ” Stitches,” and “Fiction” (Orgy), and recently “Crawl Back In” and “Let Down” (Dead By Sunrise, with their pal Chester Bennington). After enjoying years of traditional music business success, they have spent the last 10 years methodically moving away from the mainstream approach that put them on the map, opting to carefully steer their fans in a new direction, towards their new independent alternative electro rock project Julien-K – which sounds more at home with the likes of modern acts such as M83, The Kills, LCD Soundsystem, The Naked And Famous, Empire Of The Sun, and even The Black Keys (see Derakh’s sleazy electro-blues guitar playing on “We’re Here With You”).

2009 saw the long-awaited release of their debut album Death to Analog, which included long-time collaborators Anthony “Fu” Valcic and Brandon Belsky, with Belsky and drummer Elias Andra rounding out the live show. After Belsky and Andra’s 2010 departure, Julien-K’s studio line-up solidified as the trio of Derakh, Shuck and Valcic, while collaborations with electronic music innovators such as Bryan Black (Motor, Black Asteroid), Sharooz, Z-Listers, Vandal, and others revved up the writing phase of 2012’s sophomore We’re Here With You. The touring cycle that followed saw the band hit the south-west US and Europe – with festivals as far and wide as Hildesheim (Germany), Utrecht (Netherlands), and Vladivostok (Russia) – and many sold-out shows in their native LA.

In July 2014, Julien-K launched their third album cycle with a 3-song prelude to an ambitious double concept album / esthetic movement that they called California Noir^^. The CA Noir spirit was given a visual representation in November 2014 with the release of the haunting video for the title track, showcasing the struggle to discover the meaning of the Californian dream.

The concept continued in 2015 and 2016 with two wildly successful Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns and subsequent (self-)releases of the two chapters California Noir: Analog Beaches and Digital Cities and California Noir: Nightlife in Neon, which established the band as musical innovators, digital pioneers, and fully independent music entrepreneurs shaking up the underground scene.

In 2017, the band released Time Capsule: A Future Retrospective, a 4 disk, 64 song mega-package aimed at the band’s core fanbase, which consisted of unreleased songs, b-sides, never heard before remixes, and live versions of some of their biggest hits.

Julien-K has become a crowdfunding giant, with all 4 of their campaigns hitting and holding the #1 Indiegogo chart position for the duration of the campaigns.

After a successful summer 2017 tour alongside PIG and Ghostfeeder, 2018 will see the band hit the stages around the world again on headline tours, as well as in support of their friends Bush, Stone Temple Pilots, and The Cult. Being the workaholics that they are, Ryan, Amir and Fu are also already working on a new album, Harmonic Disruptor (this time with the addition of new collaborators Bidi Cobra and Alex Gonzales), that will see the band go back to their roots, while including some new aural surprises at the same time. Catch them on the road this year to find out more!

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  JULIEN-K Release Official Music Video for “Photo Voltaire” was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

#“Blind” (Korn) #“Fiction” (Orgy) #Anthony “Fu” Valcic #Blue Monday #Bush #California Noir #Chester Bennington #Dead By Sunrise #Derakh #Empire Of The Sun #Julien-K #LCD Soundsystem #m83 #music video #Photo Voltaire #Shuck #Stitches #Stone Temple Pilots #The Cult #The Kills #The Naked And Famous #Valcic

[oscarcrayton97-blog]

What Carries out A Marketing Communications Company Carry out?

If you are actually finding an excellent business option, after that you may have been aware of Isagenix. Teaching on the BSc Marketing degree is actually based upon a system of two twelve-week semesters over 3 phrases followed through exams by the end from each term. Prior to you could calculate if your advertising notification and also communication is actually around ache or even enjoyment, you have to figure out just what your product or services assure. The advertising tasks frequently include market research, brand new product development, product life cycle control, costs, network monitoring and also promo.

You will additionally learn about just how others have actually come to be successful in the home based business business; they discuss their knowledges as well as the measures they required to accomplish excellence. Online merchants depend on shopping world where the viral advertising approach is actually very most often utilized. However, if you do need to know where your trade convention advertising buck goes as well as wish to do better, this short article is actually for you. These USA home based business companies have withstood the examination of time and also our company can all discover a factor or two from them. Given that there are a number of projects within the industry, the interpretation from exactly what this is actually depends on. You must analyze your rival or even challengers in your region, find out just what they are doing, examine just how properly it is working, how it is affecting your marketing tactic, uncover what your competition presumes you are doing and also exactly how this view or assumption is actually triggering your competition to react. The marketing division of any sort of business can opt for form of advertising and marketing depends on the business/ company kind, objectives, target audience, functionality, performance as well as spending plan. When folks talk properly regarding your service, it is the absolute most effective advertising resource ever before, as well as is actually free. With product advertising and marketing the advertising and marketing mix consists of the four P's; product, promotion, location and price. In between the various other daily tasks of business, these owners forget congruity along with their advertising and marketing components. This links back to variety 10. The efforts from the marketing individuals will definitely help the item progression folks in their choices about just what brand new items to cultivate. B2B direct advertising and marketing does not merely need to be actually utilized to market - that can be used to check brand new markets and test new products or customers, to reward existing customers to build support, collect info for potential initiatives, or even section a client base. Through producing as well as executing a balanced advertising tactic, utilizing both temporary and also long-term strategies, you will definitely steer a consistent flow of targeted website traffic to your web site. However remember, this will certainly count months or times to build an enhancing career in internet marketing. End results and feed back should be actually compiled each month as well as compared to the advertising planning. Properly, social media concerns not merely Facebook and several various other systems are available for organic advertising. Much like the moment when email marketing was actually all new, mobile text advertising and marketing possesses a considerably greater action fee. It is essential to not be linked to various other advertising stations for all your marketing requires. Right now, making use of a ball park from $10/lead as the optimum acceptable cost for any type of type of marketing or advertising campaign, you could get a tip of whether your promo is in the ball park or not. These four regions make up the total profile for service or product advertising and marketing. As long as humans try to do their finest in producing the ideal electronic advertising and marketing campaign, there are some state-of-the-art as well as new technological methods that could possibly just as simply do their job (and perhaps even extra). Postmodern Advertising: Everything Should Go!, in Baker, M. If you have any questions relating to where and the best ways to utilize yellow pages uk residential, my homepage,, you can call us at our web site. (ed.), Advertising and marketing Manual, Oxford: Buterworth-Heinemann, 2005, pp. 16-31. The efficiency of a scorching advertising method can be benchmarked on updates as well as publications. Business might really want someone with sales expertise to obtain a pharmaceutical advertising and marketing job and vice versa. The multi level marketing service style has actually obtained recommendations from several business leaders worldwide as a proven company system for anyone that desires economic success. This is the key to efficient marketing on the web, having the possibility to supply your information to the visitor. One means to learn or recognize Richard Poe network marketing body is actually to review books created through Richard Poe. Well, its own purpose is to set, co-ordinate as well as straight all your advertising and marketing activities as well as events. In the 1st year you will certainly research essential advertising topics that have a major effect on all places of service task. You ought to explain the macroeconomic patterns that directly affect the target audience that your advertising strategy is intended for. You will also learn the best ways to study consumer purchasing behaviour, translate and accumulate marketing research as well as take into consideration calculated implications responsible for advertising and marketing choice helping make. There are actually a lot of business that use merely these five things to handle their advertising. The upcoming time are afraid around marketing turns up, perform the steps above and you'll think considerably more powerful concerning your ability to efficiently and efficiently market! Despite almost matching in 2013's gold medal functionality, the Educational institution of Leeds is actually still yet to leave of the Top 3 UK Educational institutions for Advertising. This is actually specifically correct for outbound telemarketing, among the direct advertising devices, as the results of a talk could be logged right away and writings changed straight away to boost outcomes. The various other vital advantage of an integrated method to advertising is that this stays clear of 'putting all your eggs in one container'. People with excellent interaction skills and also clear vocal modulation can easily opt for call center works in India. When people have a choice in between FIVE HUNDRED different tooth pastes, advertising and marketing appears like the only way to become the recommended label. To accomplish this the multi level marketing leaflet have to make use of the appropriate blend from components as well as graphics. This special blend from individual understanding, rational expertise and also organisation understanding will definitely set you aside from various other advertising and marketing graduates, and give you the devices to develop absolutely helpful evidence-based solutions to the ever-changing advertising and marketing problems experiencing companies worldwide. Frequently the mere procedure from prepping a marketing planning will certainly assist you to create an effective advertising tactic by means of the discipline and also method that you experience. To sum this up make this achievable for the agent to check out the point of the advertising and marketing man as well as vice versa. This self-funded, one-week program is a terrific way to submerse yourself in the country's service environment, offering the possibility to earn brand-new connects with and also assisting you stick out in the reasonable works market. A firm embellishments when there is shut cooperation between the advertising and marketing parts and the technical components. A minor instance on the internet marketing degree is the Bachelor of Science in Organisation Administration - Advertising and marketing (B.S.B.A./ MKT.) which places functioning specialists on a very clear course to lifelong discovering as well as excellence. Our Professional's programs are actually created to prepare you for a productive profession, everywhere worldwide you intend to operate. Advertising is actually a discipline which is actually a lot in demand as well as is actually used across many different fields, off positive items to companies, off folks to tips as well as social notifications. To learn critical advertising and marketing approaches to developing your NETWORK MARKETING company see the NETWORK MARKETING effectiveness secrets blogging site from James Hicks at the moment. MSc Advertising students could study their Degree 6 Diploma in Specialist Advertising and marketing off the Loughborough school through our partnership with CIM recognized research study facility TMLA. They manage everything from internet development to social networking sites advertising and marketing and past.

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