WS Blog

Author of five New York Times best sellers, Daniel Pink created a stir in the business world by coining the phrase, “The MFA is the new MBA.” In his 2005 book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and a number of subsequent articles and speaking engagements, Pink advocates the master of fine arts for its cultivation of “right-brain” tendencies like curiosity, inventiveness and empathy, qualities he predicts will surpass the need for “left-brain” logic.

Obviously the answer is that both are vital to a productive environment. But allow me to indulge myself and my fellow right-brainers by exploring Pink’s prediction.

I did my undergraduate degree in English literature at a liberal private college. Immediately following, I spent a year traveling, which grew into five years of “life experience,” and eventually landed in an MFA program, studying creative nonfiction. Which is to say 10 years after graduating college summa cum laude, I didn’t find myself a very marketable job applicant.

WhiteSpace Creative took a risk by hiring me as a copywriter with no experience. I’d never taken a technical writing class! I’d never heard of an RPF or an FSI or SEO! But what I did know was how to tell a story.

I found out very quickly that storytelling is vital in advertising, that connecting to human impulses is the most direct and long-lasting way to endear a consumer to a brand. My MFA has served me well. Lessons I have taken from the classroom to WhiteSpace include:

• Collaboration: The MFA is built on collaboration. Writing workshops, visiting writers and the thesis process hinge on receiving and integrating feedback, from concept to completed manuscript.

No one should create in a vacuum, regardless of purpose. Being able to take criticism and effectively integrate feedback from team members and clients alike is crucial.

• Authenticity: The MFA trains writers to be mindful, active observers. We learn to study people and their environments, to understand what makes a person tick, and to render that on the page in a way that is truthful and far-reaching.

In business, this translates to motivation. Understanding what motivates a consumer and effectively speaking to that need is invaluable.

• Narrative: MFA students learn how to craft narratives, studying pacing, character, plot structure and detail. We also learn about different genres and traditions as well as inventive ways to reproduce our culture’s narrative archetypes.

As humans, we make sense of the world through narrative. This journey to understanding crosses into our choices as consumers, making storytelling king in the world of branding.

• Language: In writing workshops, thesis defenses and craft discussions, language choices are scrutinized. MFA students develop unique voices through their capacity to manipulate and surprise with language.

If storytelling is the craft, then language choices are the tools. Everyone in business wants to be strategic, innovative and engaging. But can you communicate that without using tired buzzwords like strategic, innovative and engaging? My guess is that a person with an MFA can.

What some of Pink’s adversaries argue is true – you don’t see many business job postings that list an MFA as a requirement. However, much like agents who review manuscripts and consumers who flip through magazines or view websites, you often don’t know what you’re looking for until you find it.

Since entering the business world, I’ve also learned to give up the good fight for the Oxford comma and force myself to use exclamation points daily, but, well, that’s another story.

Annie Murray
Copywriter

Cleveland, Ohio, embraced the elements Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, with its fourth annual Brite Winter festival. An arts and music celebration held in the Ohio City Market District, the event featured 48 bands on six different stages and over 15 art installations and games. Brite Winter is free and open to the public.

WhiteSpace Creative designer Ross Horvath performed at Brite Winter with Andy Hendricks. The duo make up a two-piece called En Garde, with Horvath on guitar and vocals and Hendricks on drums. En Garde played a thirty-minute set at Joy Machines Bike Shop on West 25th Street.

En Garde has been playing together for almost two years. Horvath said it's difficult to classify what type of music they play because he and Hendricks come from very different musical backgrounds and bring their favorite aspects of many genres into their music. When pressed, Horvath said he could describe their sound as, "Midwest two-piece indie rock," defaulting to geographic and numerical descriptors.

A geographic description makes sense in this instance, however, since Brite Winter is an outdoor music and arts festival that encourages participants to celebrate harsh Cleveland winters rather than hide from them. The festival combines live music and art installations with fire, food, games and, ideally, snow. Founded by Case Western Reserve graduate students Emily Hornack and Jimmy Harris, Brite Winter aims to get people playing outside during the long winter months, even if just for the day. Exploding from 800 people in its first year to over ten thousand just four years later, the festival has made a strong impression on Cleveland's cultural landscape.

"It's not just a Cleveland festival," Horvath said, explaining that bands came from Baltimore, Philadelphia and beyond to participate. "It's a festival in Ohio that people want to be a part of. A lot of people from here don't realize that other places are trying to imitate Northeast Ohio. Really phenomenal things are happening here."

Brite Winter participants were not disappointed. In addition to the inspiring entertainment and strong sense of community, those gathered in Ohio City enjoyed a fresh snowfall.

"There's something wonderful about being together, gathered in this space, with people committed to taking an interest in music," Horvath said. Not entirely converted to the festival's full mission, however, he admitted, "But it doesn't make it any warmer. I spent about ten minutes outside."

You can check out En Garde from the warmth of your own home soon as they are releasing a self-titled EP/7" this winter and a full-length LP late summer.

WhiteSpace Creative designer and home brewer Vince Rinaldo won First Place in the Fruit Beers category for his beer Zombie Sleigher at the Wizard of SAAZ Homebrew Competition and Fest held Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, at Lock 3 in Akron, Ohio.

The Society of Akron Area Zymurgists (SAAZ) hosted the event, which featured nearly 450 different craft beers and close to 200 registered participants and was catered by “WhiteSpace Approved” DeVitis. Vince also designed his winning bottle’s label as well as the logo and marketing materials for the competition.

Vince describes Zombie Sleigher, named for his brother-in-law who writes a zombie blog (zombiesandtoys.com), as a robust porter with a mild, roasty character that presents chocolate notes and a rich raspberry aroma. Brewed with raspberry puree and cocoa nibs, Zombie Sleigher is well balanced, expertly blending the tartness of the raspberry with the tamer characteristics of a porter. Vince was awarded a medal and a gift card to Grape and Grain, a local brewing supply store, for his efforts.

A member of the Akron Homebrew Club, Vince has been homebrewing for a year and a half and is predominantly self-taught. He began with extract brewing and graduated to partial mash, which is the style of brewing that produced Zombie Sleigher. Recently, Vince moved into all-grain brewing, a pure form of brewing that uses strictly grains and no extracts.

In addition to competing, Vince shared his talents with the Wizard of SAAZ by serving as a judge and steward for the day’s events. He judged the Irish and Scottish Ales and the Belgian Strong Ales categories and names the California Common as a standout brew of the day.

Here at WhiteSpace, we enjoy Vince’s talents as he frequently brings new recipes to the office for us to sample. If you want to try Zombie Sleigher, contact Vince quickly as his drop-dead delicious award-winning brew is going fast.

We all know that search engine traffic is an important part of an online marketing program. Based on a recent Ragan.com article, more than 90 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine, which shows how critical search engine rankings are to your business. This is why search engine optimization (SEO) is a central component of any integrated marketing plan.

To boost search engine rankings, businesses and organizations need a well-planned strategy to increase overall visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and make online content more easily accessible to consumers.

It is important to remember that SEO can’t be bought. Rising through the rankings is an ongoing effort based on a strong understanding of SEO tactics integrated into a strategically sound approach.

There are several important factors when developing an SEO plan including:

• Goal Setting
• Content planning and creation
• Offsite SEO link generation

Goal Setting

The most important step in creating a focused SEO strategy is to determine the overall goals for the program. This step might mean setting new goals for your program, or evaluating existing ones through analysis of metrics. Every organization can have different goals, but common ones are overall SEO traffic, branded v. non-branded traffic and goal conversion.

Goal conversion on a website might mean several things, including: website registration, online purchase or completing a contact us form. By creating these goals, and setting up analytics to track them, a business or organization can see the progress and effectiveness of an SEO strategy over time.

Content Planning and Creation

Before putting any words to paper, you should consider content in a broader scope. The words “content creation” can cause fear and anxiety. What do I write? How do I write it? Where do I publish it? These are all the questions that need to be addressed in the strategy of your SEO plan. However, many organizations fail to look at current sources of content as a way to begin.

Ranking in the search engines isn’t the same as it used to be. Companies would post a page of content and remain ranked on Page 1 SERPs for long periods of time. With changes to search algorithms, there is a new emphasis placed on ‘freshness’ of content.  Creating content that is continually updated and fresh has become a more important task. Keep these factors in mind when thinking about your content strategy within your SEO plan:

• Audience: Research your audience, how they converse, tone of discussion and how you can tailor your message to them.
• Content: Assess what you already have and how you can repurpose and reuse. Create a checklist of available content from trade shows, press releases and catalogs. You can evaluate what content has made it to your website and what sources are viable for you to include in a content plan. Remember that new content can be used in several channels including your website, email marketing, social media outlets and other online forums.

If the content on your website consistently meets important search engine criteria, you’ll have a better chance of boosting your search engine rankings.

Link generation

Relevant links from other websites can not only increase the quality of your SEO scores, but also the volume of visits to your website. It is important to remember that you don’t want all links to point to your homepage. In order to increase the visibility of internal website pages, organizations should have a distribution of inbound links to page throughout the website.

First, identify how to generate relevant links to your website. Look to PR and social media elements, such as online press releases, media advisories and social networks. With embedded links using keywords as linking text to deep internal pages of your website, you can harness relevant language and build authority and page rank for pages throughout the site. Remember to always link to a page that is relevant to the subject matter.

Second, you can look to industry sources for linking.  If you are part of an association or local business chamber, ask for links on these sites. Remember, your external links should be websites that are relevant.

Is your SEO strategy in place?

How are you planning to drive traffic to your website with 90 percent of all online experiences beginning on the Web? At WhiteSpace Creative, we find that our clients have limited company resources, which makes it a challenge to develop a comprehensive plan and execute it.

We follow the three principles of goal setting, content creation and link generation. In addition to these principles, strong analytical tracking and social listening techniques to develop powerful, compelling and relevant content. Strategic content planning can help boost SEO scores, increase your site’s visibility and ultimately drive traffic and brand awareness.

Check out how WhiteSpace Creative improved SEO for Kichler, a national wholesaler that designs and manufacturers a distinct array of lighting solutions.

Family holiday traditions are not susceptible to change, whether you like them or not. You can always add new traditions, but the old ones never seem to go away.

It’s common for every family to have a list of fairly normal traditions – a Christmas tree (which, cutting down a tree and bringing it into your house is really weird if you think about it), house decor, eggnog, favorite holiday movies, etc. But then there’s always that one odd tradition; one that you didn’t even know was becoming a tradition until you look back on it years later.

For me, the odd tradition was Kenny G’s Christmas record, “Miracles.” My mom made sure it was my family’s December soundtrack from 1994 until I moved out in 2008. I’m certain that album represented 35 minutes and 49 seconds of pure gold to her. I won’t say that I enjoyed it, but I’ll admit that Kenny G is magical with a saxophone.

So then I started to wonder what weird holiday rituals or traditions other WhiteSpace team members have. The following is a comprehensive list of the many unique and diverse traditions of the WhiteSpace staff:


• “Driving the kids around to look at Christmas lights with a bowl of popcorn”- James Zelasko, Lead Interactive Designer

• “No matter where I’ve lived, I’ve always had an ugly, misshapen evergreen in the backyard. We put big Christmas light bulbs on it an call it the Charlie Brown Stupid Tree” – Denise Copen, Account Manager

• “Instead of decorating a Christmas tree, I put Christmas lights in my lizard tank and stack presents around it. I call it the Christmas tank.” – Kory Urban, Programmer

• “We celebrate Christmas in November. I have no idea why.” – Ashley Engelhardt, Graphic Designer

• “Our family never signs packages, ‘To dad, from Amy.’ We write things that correlate to the gift, like, ‘To Paula Dean, from Mario Batali’ if it’s a cooking present. My dad also shot me with his new paintball gun one Christmas morning.” – Amy Black, Graphic Designer

• “We put up six Christmas trees in our house. Each person has their own tree, and then we have two random ones.” – Lisa Marshall, Senior Account Executive

• “Our Christmas events are more about socializing around food than receiving gifts. I’m not really allowed in the kitchen anymore because my daughters take control.” – Keeven White, President/CEO

• “Everyone in the family gets their gifts, but we all have to open them one at a time while people watch and record us. So I always defiantly open my presents and cause chaos.” - Ralph Davila, Senior Director of Public Relations

• “Our Dallas Cowboys-themed Christmas tree falls over every year. Our player ornaments are all amputated but my husband refuses to get rid of them.” – Jen Snider, Associate Creative Director/Copywriter

• “I've spent Christmas Eve at my godparents' house every year that I've been alive. Our tradition involved a tall staircase in my godparents' house where the children were all assembled for a photograph. We all H-A-T-E-D this photo because every parent had to get their shots and there were 10-12 families so we were stuck on those stairs for up to 15 minutes. Anyway, they kept forcing us to do this well into our late 20s and we finally struck a deal to get off the stairs: You had to have a kid to take your place. Thus, I'm still on those stairs.” – Robbie Schneider, Programmer

• “I’m a huge golfer, so my tradition is to hit a bucket of balls every year on December 26, whether it’s in my backyard or at a driving range.” – David Delosa, Graphic Designer

• “I trek three miles every New Year’s Eve to and from my buddy’s house. I always see people partying through windows on my walk home, which is sort of strange.” – John Puglia, Vice President of Creative Services

• “We mostly do everything on Christmas Eve. It’s a polish tradition. We have a meatless meal and go to midnight Mass.” – Andrea Lewalk, Interactive Project Manager

• “We pour brandy on our Christmas pudding, set it on fire and eat it. There is a coin somewhere in the pudding and whoever finds it has good luck for a year. Then we watch the queen of England’s speech every Christmas at 3 p.m.” – Helen Davis, Project Manager (from the U.K.)

• “Our Family eats calamari every New Year’s Eve and Sauerkraut every New Year’s day.” – Greg Kiskadden, Executive Vice President

• "If I host Christmas at my apartment, we do a Christmas craft. My family isn't super crafty, so it's pretty entertaining."  - Sarah Cross, Project Manager

• “We always have an Elf on the Shelf named Jack appear. He pops up random places in the house during the holiday season.” – Andi Jones, Senior Account Supervisor

• "I bake cookies with all four of my older sisters. Then I generally try to sleep over at my dad’s house.” – Lynn Beesley, Graphic Designer

• “It’s a tradition for us to leave silver dollars in our miniature stocking ornaments that are hung from the Christmas tree. It’s something I’ve done since I was a kid.” – Cindy Berman Morrow, Director of Public Relations

• “Dad would always turn on the ham radio every year to listen to Christmas music from Switzerland.” – Susan Breen, Associate Creative Director, Design

• “I always sleep at my brother and sister-in-law’s house on Christmas Eve so I can wake up and be with my little nieces on Christmas morning.” – Ross Horvath, Graphic Designer

• “I brew a new Christmas beer every year.” – Vince Rinaldo, Graphic Designer

• “My family sings Happy Birthday to Jesus every Christmas. We’ve been doing that since I was a kid.” -Sharon Griffiths, Art Director, Project Manager

• “My family goes out to dinner at Red Lobster every Christmas Eve.” – Katie Lawton, Receptionist

• “My husband always makes bison burgers with blue cheese and bacon on New Year’s Eve. I look forward to that all year.” – Stacey Zur, Senior Account Supervisor

• “It’s not a tradition, but I told all the kids in my first grade class that Santa Claus wasn’t real because I never believed in him. I got into an argument with all the other first graders that day.” – Jeremy Toburen, Vice President of Operations

• “When I was younger we would always have hardcore gingerbread house decorating contests. The winner would have bragging rights over the whole family. I generally owned my brother and sister.” – Ben Tice, Senior Web Developer

• “My wife makes cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. We have to have the rolls and coffee before Christmas can actually get started.” – Dean Crawford, Senior Account Supervisor


Tom Crilley
Public Relations Coordinator

For the millennial generation, Akron’s most notable native is LeBron James of the Miami Heat, but the city once boasted a different champion son two years before King James was even born.

On December 10, 1982, Michael Dokes became the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion. He was the LeBron James of his era. His reign as champion was short, but he developed a devoted following with a 53-6-2 professional record. Dokes remained in Akron after his career ended until his passing in August 2012.

John Puglia, WhiteSpace Creative Vice President of Creative Services, had a chance encounter with Dokes in downtown Akron two years ago and kept in touch with him until his death.

“I met him at Crave restaurant,” Puglia said. “I’m a huge boxing fan, so we originally discussed filming a documentary. Dokes was the heavyweight champion of the world. He was a big deal around Akron during his prime.”

Puglia opened an exhibit in August that featured two paintings of Dokes, and he still had hopes of completing a documentary with the boxer. However, Dokes died just one week later.

“I knew the documentary wasn’t going to happen after that, so I decided to work on more images instead,” Puglia said.

Puglia opened “Dynamite VS. - Images from the Life of Michael Dokes,” on Nov. 23 with about 50 paintings and prints, a zine and a collection of videos, sounds and projections of Dokes’ interviews and fights.

The art exhibit was split between two locations. Ten large paintings of Dokes can be viewed at NEXT in downtown Akron.  Thirty smaller paintings of Dokes’ opponents are presented directly across the street at Square Records. The distance between the two locations represents the divide between Dokes and his opponents.

The exhibit is open to the public until Dec. 12, with many of the paintings being available to purchase. Check out some images from the gallery below and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Tom Crilley
Public Relations Coordinator

If I could grow a moustache that didn’t look creepy, I would. Trust me, I want a sweet stache. Here at WhiteSpace Creative, I have been reminded of that every day this month.

Staches. I see staches on faces everywhere. Eight of the men of WhiteSpace Creative are participating in Movember, an annual, month-long fundraising campaign in November in which participants grow their moustaches to raise awareness about men’s health issues.

Some people run marathons to help charitable causes, others buy bumper stickers or bracelets. These guys grow moustaches. I mean sure, running a marathon may be harder and more painful than growing a moustache, but have you thought about the social repercussions of having a monster, Hulk Hogan-like stache on your face in 2012? Massive moustaches were the norm in the 19^th century. Now, unless you’re Hulk Hogan, they’re far more… suspicious. 

Some of these staches put Ron Burgundy (CC: Anchorman) to shame. Take a look for yourself.

In case you’re questioning the commitment of the WhiteSpace crew, here is a list of things you probably shouldn’t do with a Mega Stache:

• Interview for a job
• Talk to a girl
• Kiss your grandma
• Eat chicken wings
• Audition for the role of Peter Parker in a remake of Spiderman

That’s good enough for me. These guys are giving up a lot to remain committed, and they really are doing it for a good cause. Other than the Movember campaign, men’s health issues are generally not the focal point of fundraising and action campaigns. The Movember movement is a way to address some of the issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer.

The concept of Movember began in Melbourne, Australia, in 2003 with only 30 participants. Last year, nearly 900,000 people across the world raised $126.3 million. The funds benefit notable charities such as the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

Participation has increased dramatically in just 9 years for a number of reasons. Movember has been prominent in social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest; it’s a charitable movement that supports a good cause; and the effects of Movember are hard to miss on the participants’ faces. It has all the elements of an ideal, user-driven campaign. It’s witty, social and original.

Establishing credibility as a nonprofit is far easier than establishing corporate credibility. Corporations are pushing a product, and the consumers know that. The only thing nonprofits try to sell is a good cause. The honorable cause and physical evidence is all Movember needed to become a once-a-year global phenomenon.

For more information on Movember, or to figure out why you’ve seen so many moustaches this month, visit us.movember.com. To help the WhiteSpace crew reach its goal, check out the Mötley Fü team page.

We've also discovered some imposter staches running around the office. You can find their mug shots here.

Tom Crilley
Public Relations Coordinator

Pinterest’s rise in popularity has placed an even greater focus on the use of visual imagery in the social media realm. It has recently become the fourth largest traffic driver worldwide in terms of organic and referral traffic, passing Yahoo!, Bing and Twitter – with only Google and Facebook above it.

It’s no surprise that other platforms have begun to piggyback off of this visually driven phenomenon on the Social Web. A company that has picked up on this trend is Foodily, a smartphone application launched in late 2011. They've recently gained momentum with just less than 500,000 users.

They call the platform a mix between “Food with Friends,” Pinterest and Quora (a forum to ask questions and get answers from industry pros). They combine recipes, associated imagery and provide a forum for users engage each other – facilitating a structured and engaged conversation.

Foodily added a “Pin It” button a few months ago and saw an increase in impressions of nearly 139 million. That’s a 900 percent increase from their previous average!

Our team at WhiteSpace diligently follows industry trends to ensure we can better strategically develop websites, apps and platforms for our clients. When Foodily launched, we saw yet another adaptation of using visual imagery to engage and motivate a target audience to action through to food niche.

It’s all about finding the conversation, listening and engaging based on trends, discussions and needs. Sometimes the addition of a “Pin It” button can make a vast difference in the success of a campaign on the Social Web, and other times we create the platform to share rich content and interact. Foodily is a fantastic example of how extracting a successful social segment within a larger social platform can yield significant results.

Recent News
Pinterest just released a new version allowing businesses to create a custom-designed page. It was quite a challenge to create a business-specific page prior to this change. We encourage our current clients and businesses looking to get on Pinterest to utilize this new “Business Accounts” functionality.

Whether you’re a writer, designer, content management specialist or social media guru, creative blocks can be frustrating and debilitating, but they can be overcome.

Here are a few ideas to help break through and get the ideas flowing again.

Break Habits & Routines Once a Week

Routines and ruts can cause mental boredom. One of the simplest solutions for a creative rut is to change things up. Drive a new way to work. Start your day differently. One of the guidelines for physical exercise is to vary your routine to stimulate muscle growth. Your brain is no different. Change stimulates the imagination.

Visit a Library or Museum

Get lost in the library. Grab a few books or magazines and skim them for ideas. Go to a museum or gallery and make a list of things you like, as well as a list of things you would change about what you see or experience.

Watch TV

Watching TV can be good. It can take you to new places and allow you to see new things. It can also stimulate creative thinking. Take the show Dirty Jobs, for example. Watch just one episode and you will see creativity at work. It could be a simple invention to make a job easier or you might find inspiration in the discarded items and ideas . No Reservations is another great program that showcases creative chefs making new dishes out of familiar ingredients. The episode featuring Ferran Andria and his elBulli restaurant will change the way you define food and dining. This is a great example of extreme creativity.

Start a Daily Journal

Buy a blank journal and make a commitment to enter at least one mark in the journal every day. Schedule time with your journal. Perhaps you can avoid that first cup of coffee until after you’ve written or drawn something. Even better, write or draw while enjoying that first cup of coffee.

Choose a Target Date for a Personal Project

Pick a date far enough in the future to create something and make a plan to get there. It could be someone’s birthday, an event or an entry date for a competition. Goals help keep us focused and motivated. Try entering a creative competition or participating in a new event.

Walk

Walking is healthy for the body and the mind. It utilizes all of your senses. You can see, smell and feel things you would never notice from your car. Observation and experience stimulate the mind, causing ideas to flow. Walk and explore new places.

Be a Luddite for One Week (or at least one day) a Month

Stop using all current technology. Ride a bike, pick up a pencil, make all meetings face-to-face, and write or sketch all of your thoughts and ideas. You will be amazed by the places your mind goes when it is not wired to devices. Believe it or not, there was a time in the not so distant past when most people were not working at a computer all day or walking around with a phone in their pocket.

Creative blocks are normal, but they need not be debilitating. If you’re in a rut, use it as an opportunity to seek new experiences and take a break from your routine. You never know what might pop into your head!

The vice president of a professional sports team once told me that there are two types of public relations practitioners: The ones who have been fired and the ones who haven’t. He forgot to mention the ones who have been acquired.

That’s exactly what happened to me and the rest of the SmileyHanchulak crew just one month after I started my job as the agency’s PR account coordinator. My first thought after the announcement was, “Looks like it’s back to the post-grad job search,” followed by, “Did it really only take me 30 days to shut this place down?” I hadn’t even taken the time to decorate my office with accomplishments, family photos or a fleet of Post-it notes.

But we were quickly reassured that instead of boxing up and entering the world of unemployment, we would be entering the world of WhiteSpace Creative, an Akron-based integrated marketing communications agency that has been steadily gaining prominence since it was established in the mid-90s.

WhiteSpace Creative is client-centric, likening itself to a client’s in-house creative department, and public relations is the agency’s most recent offering. The acquisition of SmileyHanchulak adds two PR practitioners to the agency’s creatively robust team, meaning that this acquisition has done exactly what it was intended to do.  The combined clients of both agencies now have more resources to work with, a broader range of services and a bigger team to meet their needs.

The WhiteSpace Creative staff saved the Smiley crew from that awkward, out-of-towner feeling, as they were quick to welcome us into their work environment and immerse us in their culture. The monthly waffle breakfast birthday celebrations, team meetings/outings promoting collaboration and an annual 24-hour “CreateAthon” benefiting local nonprofits is all part of the process WhiteSpace Creative has adopted to promote a unified agency culture that boasts a long list of satisfied clients.

When I graduated in May 2012, I had no idea that within the first three months of my career I would be the new guy at two different agencies. I also had no idea that that my clients would range from ice cream manufacturers to companies that create highly technical transducers and hydro-pneumatic accumulators. But that’s what I do, and I dig it because I get to work with cool, likeable people who are good at what they do and have a little fun while doing it.

I still haven’t found a fellow die-hard NASCAR fan, though. I’ll keep waiting for that.

-Tom Crilley, Public Relations Coordinator, WhiteSpace Creative