Mirror's Edge Trailer

Check this out. It's awesome. It's for the Mirror's Edge game. This is awesome. The transitions are so cool!

I wish I could jump and fly and do all these crazy things. 

The Game is called Networking

So the other day, I attended the Creative Summit at the Walker Arts Center. I'm glad I went.

The speakers were: Rei Inamoto (CCO, AKQA), Kevin Allen (Proximity, London) and Nancy Hill (Pres & CEO, AAAA). They each had really interesting/inspiring things to say, but the most influential was definitely Rei Inamoto. 

When I found out about Rei Inamoto attending the Summit (and that he was going to visit Miami Ad School afterwards), the first thing I realized was that he's Japanese! I realized this was the time to put my Japanese skills to use. So I googled him to get some background info on him before I actually met him. And Google listed his facebook, so ofcourse I messaged him and introduced myself in Japanese and told him I'm excited to meet and talk to him. A few days went by and he never messaged back. "Was that too much of a stalkerish move? Was it a bad idea?"I thought.  But I just moved on and didn't think much of it. I figured I'll just have to introduce myself after the Summit. Well, turns out I didn't really have to! Rei came to MAS, had some lunch, and had convos w/the students. I felt weird cuz I participated in the convos in English...(I think it's weird speaking English w/ Japanese people...) but as soon as I walked up to him afterwards, he turned on his Japanese switch and said "You're Mai! You facebooked me!" Gotta say, I felt cool cuz no one knew what we were talkin' about. We must've talked for at least 20 minutes. About advertising, about Japan, about family, etc. He also offered to help me network in Japan, which I really appreciate. Ive been trying to network in Japan for a while now and I've been having trouble for some reason. 

Anyway, I can blabber on about this. WWaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! I'm so glad I went to the Summit. I'm so glad I facebooked him, and I'm so glad Ive kept up with my Japanese!

School's All Good

Wow, it's been pretty busy since school re-started. To be honest, I thought being a 5th quarter student here would give me more time to work on things outside of class. (Most people go intern..so I didnt even think I'd have a heavy courseload..) BUT I was wrong, and I love it. Taking a couple concepting classes...an IMPROV class...Motion graphics....etc. Life is good. Seems like I've been coming up with at least 1 pursuitable campaign every week. I'm excited. I'm glad I stuck around in Minneapolis. I'm focused. I'm ready to do work. Bring it!!!

Another Quarter in Minneapolis

Well, it looks like I'll be in Minneapolis for another 3 months. I didn't get the internship I wanted. Oh well, I'll try again. That being said, I decided to stay in Minneapolis for another quarter. I'll use the next 3 months to really focus on school and grow. I've already picked up some local professionals as my "mentors". We'll see what happens. 

Saturn Astra

We finally gave our Saturn Astra pitch. It was awesome!

Our team presented in front of Saturn's Marketing Manager, an AD from Deutch LA, and the EVP ECD from DIGITAS. We were really comfortable and proud of our work since the minute we walked in and we had a blast. The client really liked the way we set up the presentation, and they loved our leave behinds. If you want to know the details of our campaign, you can ask me.  :) But yea, wow...it was awesome. It was really encouraging and exciting when they kept wanting to talk more and more about how to keep expanding our campaign. It didn't even feel like a "pitch". It was more like hangin' out and having a conversation. I want to do it again!

Sweet home Chicago!

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm from Chicago. I've moved about 14 times in my life, but Chicago has been my constant "base". After I graduated from CU in 06, I went back there to work for a year and be "responsible". But when I left to come here to Minneapolis for school, I couldn't fit everything in my wonderfully generic Honda Accord. And guess what got left behind? My precious hockey equipment. This past year has been rough w/o hockey every week. Major withdrawls. So I just hopped in my car and made the trip back to pick up my gear. Oh my gear how I missed you and your odor...haha.

Chicago was so much fun. Hung out with friends, had a few drinks, enjoyed the city. Hey, the 6 hour drive each way wasn't that bad either. Thanks iTunes!

Saturn....no, not the planet.

Haven't talked about school in a while...

I was recently "recruited" to join a creative team in the account boot camp program that MAS is hosting right now. I'm not getting credit for this class or anything, but I figured it would be a good opportunity for me to work on stuff...so I took the offer. I'm really excited about this because on 9/10, we're actually pitching to a real client, Saturn. We're working on the Saturn Astra, and I think we have some good ideas so far. Lots of ambient stuff. Good stuff.  I'm excited. I'll talk more about it later for confidential reasons...?