Included in this post are photos taken by Tae Photography for McMaster University of the 10 Bay building in Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for more architectural images.

Origins

Tae: So let’s talk about how you came to be in your position of marketing for McMaster University and what was the journey that got you there and was there education involved or was there mainly learning on the job, or what brought you to where you are?

Noelle: I would say I have over 15 years of film production in my past, so that definitely helped. I worked for different production companies. The last one right before I got into McMaster was one that did aviation and it was a company that created parts for tanker ships and stuff like that. I would do videos and marketing material for them. So when I worked there, I ended up having my daughter and on my mat leave I decided to get my marketing degree with a concentration in digital marketing at McMaster and I loved it! I loved getting that while I was on mat leave with my daughter and I fell in love with McMaster from walking through the campus. So I decided to apply there. And I think my history and schooling and everything like that definitely helped me in getting a job.

Skills

Tae:  Very nice! What are some of the aspects of your job that you really look forward to doing? Is it content creation, events, storytelling or social media. What do you look forward to?

Noelle: I look forward to all my tasks, I love them all! But I would say I love the bigger events the most. I love when I get to create a digital poster and an actual poster that’s going to be shown at the event and different handouts. And I have to make all of them match in a way but also different so it’s eye catching each time and it’s not just the same one everywhere and boring. I love it. The more I can create for like an event or project, the better. I really enjoy that.

Tae: So more of that in-person sort of situation. I just learned the word or this phrase in a previous interview about “Out-of-Home Activation”. Is that the right phrase? Did I say that right? Where it’s not digital, it’s an advertisement that is tangible out in the public.

Noelle: Yes. Something people can see. It could be a billboard, but it could be something more like an actual item that stands out that people can’t miss when they’re walking by it kind of thing to just get people’s attention.

Designing for a University

Tae: So it must be different, a little bit different working at a university than it is working for other companies. So give me a little bit of insight into how that’s different.

Noelle: I found when I was working at the production companies, you’d have people come in for different commercials, different print materials, stuff like that. And they were so different in their own way. And I found that when I worked at McMaster, you would have different units and different events, and they were different but similar. And I found that although I was so ready to create tons of different material you have to do so within the brand standards now where you didn’t really have that before. So that was a learning curve where I’m like, I have limitations now. I can’t just create whatever they want. Before it was like, “We can kind of create that!”, but now it’s, “We have the standards and you have to follow these.” Which can be a little tricky to maneuver with some units where it’s like, “That sounds like a wonderful idea. We just can’t do that.” Let’s try doing this instead. That was definitely different.

I would say the best part though is that people work for so long here that many people retire at McMaster. It still kind of throws me when I think we could be working together for the rest of our careers until we retire – which you don’t really get in a lot of places anymore. One of my coworkers just retired and it was just like, wow, he was there for 30 years! That’s amazing!

Tae: That’s pretty cool! It must be really neat to not have that surface level kind of relationship with your co-workers that you would with a more temporary position. You know, it’s a little bit more long term, a little bit more permanent. And that’s, that’s really nice. I like that.

So with working for a university where you are restrained by brand guidelines and certain ways of doing things, how do you keep things creative and fresh in your marketing when things are seasonal or may get repetitive?

Noelle: I think it is the seasonal that makes it very intense and interesting because that’s something you really do learn when you’re working at McMaster is that it’s all based on when the students are coming in and when they’re staying and when they’re leaving. And right now we’re prepping for December break and the students going away for the holidays and then coming back and then we have to prep for May at Mac and get all those designs ready and update them and make them different still within the standards. But then Move In is so busy and chaotic and we’re all just trying to get everything done months ahead. It takes so long to prep for it. So I find the seasons are always the same, but the workload can be so intense and crazy and fast paced. I still have to work within the brand standards, but ! get to create so many different kinds of things. It’s so fun. I enjoy it every time!

Working with Timelines

Tae: I was just curious about how far in advance you have to plan some of these things? Like, what is the timeline?

Noelle: That’s such a good question. May at Mac is coming up next, which actually takes place May next year. But even now, we would start talking about it. We would start seeing what everybody would need, get the idea in their heads, because then come January we would start to plan. The students have to leave in April, and we have to prep designs for that. So that doesn’t give a lot of time for May at Mac. I know even now they’re talking about Moving In Time next year. I’m just not in that stage yet because I don’t need to design anything until a little later. But communications, they’re all in it.

Tae: So tell me about the May campaign. Like what is that about and how far in advance do you get the campaign out into the public before you actually need to see some, you know, reaction to it.

Noelle: We are doing a booklet handout again, which was amazing to create for the fall previews that just happened. And we’re going to be doing the posters and the directional signs and everything on campus. Anything off campus would be through social media and that would be my coworker. So that’s him planning and designing. That’s his area. And then for the communications, that’s my other coworker, so she’s going to be planning and sending out the emails, getting that to all the different high school students, letting them and the parents know when they can come, and the dates, and the times. My role is more on campus. So when they come here, they know exactly where to go, what’s happening, what they can do, what residences they can visit, and then a booklet with everything they would need to know as a high school student interested in McMaster – like their meal plans and the different room styles we have. So it’s interesting seeing the prep work from both of them and then mine and then we all just come together in the end.

Favourite Projects

Tae: Is there like a recent campaign that you worked on that’s been meaningful to you or stood out in some way?

Noelle: I would say the booklet. Because we did these for years, and we always had five different handouts. But then we thought, “Are they reading it? Are they getting blended with all the other ones? What if they lose one? So we decided to actually create a booklet and I got to design that and make all the pages similar, but all the pages are actually different and they’re coming from different units as well. So they had to blend. And that was so fun, because it’s like, how do we maneuver this? How do we make it so it’s just not information? So it’s eye-pleasing, and people want to read it and look it over.

Tae: And don’t want it to be too overwhelming, right? You want it to be easy to read, you know, give them that information that they need right away but be comprehensive.

Noelle Holloway: Yeah. And it was a huge success. Now we saw it, we handed it out to different people, got some feedback, what could be included, what can maybe not be included. So now we can change that again for May at Mac and see how that goes. I love too, coming to Mac, I’m like, oh, there’s some things we can change now to make it even better.

Tae: That’s cool. So if you could change anything about the way universities approach visuals, you know, whether it be photography or video or graphics, is there anything that you would change?

Noelle: I would say I love the new branding. That was fun to learn. I think we have a great resource bank right now with everything. One thing I would like to add would maybe be more photos, stock photos of students in their room seeing all the different ways students can design their rooms. So I think more visuals can give students coming in ideas of like, I should bring this so I can decorate it that way, and having that as a resource. I think they would really love it.

Tae: Yeah, I like that. And I feel like it makes it more personal, brings some humanity into it, you know, so it’s not just a sterile room, but people want to be there and if they see how they can actually decorate their room or make it their own or kind of thing – I can see that.

Noelle: Right? And if you think about it, a lot of them will come from their own house with their own bedroom and it is designed a certain way and they’ve had years and years to design it that way. Having that idea to be like, okay, this is a great idea of what I could do for the room going in.

Work Challenges

Tae: What’s some sort of a challenge you come up against in your work?

Noelle: I would say one challenge would be all the different eyes on the design and the different changes some people might differ on. So trying to find that good medium while also sticking to the timeline to get them to print is tricky. It’s trying to make everyone happy with a good medium ground to just get it to print. I find that one can always be a little challenging sometimes, but at the end, people, once they see it, they’re always so happy.

Tae: We come up against that sometimes in our job too. So if you could like redesign your workflow to be better, would it be less people giving opinions or would it be something else that you would do? Would it be a tool that you would implement or just a different process of doing things to make it better?

Noelle: I think I would want to implement a shared calendar with all the different units so we can see all the events coming up. For example it could be, “We have this event – can you help create this?” Of course. And we would do it, but I think in the future just being able to see, okay, events has this coming up, Residence Life has this event soon, and they’re very similar dates. I should probably start this now so that I can create the different kind of designs for each of the different events. And it gives me more than enough time and I wouldn’t feel rushed. I think that would be a really cool tool to have, which I think is actually pretty doable.

Tae: If you were given an unlimited amount of money to do a campaign and free rein for the creative, what would it be?

Noelle: My coworker retired recently and during his speech he told these amazing stories about all the people who had previously retired and who worked there and had passed away. It made me really think, because you were hearing these stories and I never would have heard these stories otherwise, other than through him. And I think if I had the resources to do it, I would love to take the initiative, to talk to staff and students and faculties, to hear their stories. One of them is a housing assistant we learned about and she works there. She’s on her 29th year and her son works there now. He went to school there and now he works at McMaster. And I think just to hear these stories of people who have just given so much of their life to McMaster and love it. I would enjoy hearing their stories and how they got there and what they love about it. So I would definitely do a big campaign and just learn about everyone who makes McMaster McMaster.

Managing Stress

Tae: That sounds so sentimental and I’m here for it. I’m totally here for it. But getting into to a different thing, you said, there are certain times during the year where it can be intense, right? So tell me about how you manage the stress. How you manage your mood to be able to do your job and keep that balance there.

Noelle: I would say definitely when I’m starting to feel a bit burnt out, especially if I’m working too hard on a project where it’s just not working, it’s not aligning, or just can’t figure it out. Then most times I would go for a walk. And it’s so nice now with the fresh air. It just hits you and you’re like, okay, go across campus and come back. Just to clear your head. That’s what I do because I find that just helps me reset. Also, if I can work on a different project that’s going a different way in design, that will help. And then I can just give one a break and then come back and say, that’s the issue. Let’s just take out those lines and try something different. I definitely find that helps me for sure. When, if it’s a video project, I find the I’m stuck the best way is to watch trailers. Tons of different ones. Sometimes I’m like, that’s absolutely beautiful. I wouldn’t change anything or I would change this and this and I would see the editing technique and I’m like, okay, I have a great idea. And just go back to the and edit it a different way. Often I need to just get away from the computer, give my eyes a reset because it’s a still image. And then I’m like, okay, let me get away, try something different. Look at the trees, look at all around me, and then come back and try a different way to design it.

Tae: What is that technique people use? Mindfulness? Is that kind of what you do where you go for a walk and you like look at things and you be in the moment so you’re not thinking about your problems? You can have a break mentally and then you can go back and readdress them?

Noelle: Yes, and I always do that because I always just breathe in. I’m a tree person, so I just look at the trees all the time and I love it and it calms me and then I can go back (definitely calmer) and get back into it.

Tae: Very cool. I am so glad that you took the time to do this little interview with me. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from you. This is fantastic. And I hope other people do too. So thank you so, so much, Noelle, for being here, for talking to me.

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