Besides my work as creative director of OffWhite, I’m an adjunct professor at Marietta College, one of America’s finest liberal arts colleges and a gem nestled in the hills of southeastern Ohio. I love teaching college students, from freshmen to seniors and even grad students. Teaching on campus keeps me connected to the best and the brightest on their path to whatever career they choose. Teaching keeps me current, plugged in to the tide charts that ebb and flow with the latest lingo, the best music, what to wear and how to stay young so that my daughters Lucy and Helen think I’m totally cool. Which I am. When our management team at OffWhite earlier this year directed a total upgrade of our entire infrastructure, from Macs and PCs to software, back-ups, archive systems and even our beloved iPads, we went with the best. I led the charge on the creative side and, frankly, I was not bashful when Bill White asked me where we needed to invest in the technology that would maintain our competitive position in the marketplace. We chose wisely.
Recent presentations from my college students returning from summer internships at marketing, PR and ad firms across the USA, specifically Virginia, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania and beyond, confirmed what I have always believed about OffWhite. We’re sitting on a creative engine and we can compete with anyone. Our interns displayed photo essays of their workspaces, including details of environments and technologies deployed throughout the companies they served. Each firm had its own culture, its own niche and each offered areas of excellence, both in client services and in internship fulfillment. My students were pretty happy with their experiences. But when it came to specifics on technology, I realized that OffWhite won the race hands down. Our brand new, high-resolution 27″ iMacs, combined with the very latest Master Collection Adobe Creative Suite, CS5, puts the best suite of tools at our fingertips. Our systems allow us to work with electronic, production and print houses anywhere in the world – and we do. Our records and file management systems bring our raw materials to us at light speed. Our archives are solid. We use the latest versions of conventional software, from Office and Word, Excel, Outlook and the usual to the best creative tools on the market such as InDesign, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop and more. On the technical marketing side we work often with these and other programs, plug-ins and extensions that give us seamless interface with CAD engineering systems, website development platforms, web servers, website metrics and other tools necessary to deliver top notch service.
Our new streamlined platforms combine the latest in both Mac and PCs, permitting us to focus on our work. We can be more creative. We can exchange ideas easier than ever. Our job tracking, costing, accounting and auditing are bulletproof. We can take time to manage our brand. The rule at OffWhite is “if it will save time and serve our clients better, we’ll buy it”. And we do. That’s the way it’s been for more than 27 years at OffWhite and, as we transition to the future, that’s the way it will remain. Additionally, if it doesn’t exist, we’ll invent it. That’s why we recently launched Ed.it™2, our popular website content management system. We think it’s the best: cost efficient, easy to use, and it puts the power of your website where it belongs – on your desk.
At OffWhite we continue to invest because we can easily measure the return: happy clients. And, as we say on campus, that’s “sweet”.
