Here is the creative process behind my “Be Remarkable” campaign, an attempt to stand out to a company called Pixar. This letter gives a good backstory.
Part 1 | Wilderness Explorer Sash and Badges
Goal: To make a visual representation of myself, inspired by my favorite movie, UP.
Materials: Brown fabric for the sash, felt for the badges, some spray paint, and glue.
How: As I mentioned in my blog post, I wanted to create something, physically. I really couldn’t think of anything to make myself stand out until I was driving home to visit my parents. A light bulb had gone off, it was a bizarre moment. But it’s like one of those ideas that you come up with in the shower? Like that. Now in the movie, Russell had a ton of badges and I didn’t think I had time to do them all, so I honed in and made three categories unique to me: Educational Badges, Professional Badges, and Personal Badges.
After I brainstormed the titles to the badges, I had to think of what to draw on the badges. And at first, I wanted to use paint to directly draw on the badges. In short, it didn’t work out. I soon discovered that it looked sloppy and cutting felt icons would be best. Adding a “a second layer” gave it more dimension. It took a couple of hours of cutting and re-cutting, but I figured it out.
Part 2 | Wilderness Explorer Handbook
Goal: To complement my sash, giving details on how I earn(ed) my badges. Complete with Appendices.
How: Taking things off of my resume, I developed my professional and educational badges, but put a bit of a twist to them. My personal badges are things and events I am proud of, they were all things that showed my capability in front of a school- and work- desk. All of the badges were molded to fit my Wilderness Explorer theme.
Part 3 | Find a Pixar Employee
Goal: To make sure someone receives my package.
Challenge: This was probably the most difficult part: finding a Pixar employee to send my box. Because if no one received it, if someone threw it away- well, that leaves me at Square Zero. The uncertainty makes my heart sink, but I trekked on, praying to God that it will get into the right hands…or at least someone’s hands who would be willing to at least take a look.
How: Calling the office was futile because I didn’t have any connects. PLAN B? Two things: 1) I watched UP and 2) I got on LinkedIn. Yeah, I watched UP until the Marketing Team credits rolled by, wrote down everyone’s name, and then I looked them up on LinkedIn. I narrowed it down to a couple of people, messaged them, waited for a response, and then chose.
Part 4 | An Open Letter to Pixar
Goal: To share my story. Deeming to be share-worthy, get it shared, and somehow make it onto the computer/email of a Pixar employee. Seven degrees of separation, right?
How: I wrote this shindig. How do I know that it worked? I don’t, but I’ll keep you updated.
Part 5 | The Results
Results: I didn’t get it.
Read my updates: Update #1, Update #2, and my Final Update.
thu, texas 