Connecticut Landmarks is a non-profit organization with a collection of historical landmarks all across CT. They own 15 sites in total all with different historical backgrounds and focus on hosting special events at these sites such as school trips, tours, weddings, Holiday activities and other social events.

CT Landmarks came to us looking for a social media strategy that would help them reach out to the community more efficiently. Specifically, they wanted to reach out more to LGBTQ and the Spanish speaking community. Our main goal was to create a sense of community throughout the CT Landmarks brand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We accomplished this goal by creating a social media strategy document that CT Landmarks can use to interact better with their online followers and attract new ones. Additionally, created a posting guide for the month of November that they will be able to look back on for specific examples of what to post. We also visited three of the CT Landmarks properties to generate content for CT Landmarks to use and made mock ups of specific posts. Furthermore, we researched SEO for the CT Landmarks website. We proposed paid options as well as going into their site manually to improve SEO. Lastly, we spruced up the website by fixing broken links.

CT Landmarks presented us with multiple challenges that we tackled thoroughly and creatively. Our client was more than satisfied with our work which will make a lasting impact on CT Landmarks.

Fall 2017

Guess is a men’s and women’s fashion brand that originated in the 1980s. Guess licenses their watches to Sequel. Sequel commissioned ATION to help with Facebook content, special photos for their Holiday 2017 campaign and Spring 2018 campaign. Our team collaborated with the design team at Sequel to create content that met their needs and maintained a consistent branding look and feel.

Throughout the semester we had numerous photo shoots and learned how to set up shoots based on occasion, season, and style. Throughout the shoots, we sent sample photos to the Sequel client for feedback and approval. All photos were put into a Google drive, organized by shooting date for our client to select her favorites.  After the photos were approved by our client, we then edited watch faces to make sure they were clear to see and applied a filter which created an overall aesthetic for each campaign. Our final photos were then put in marketing sheets, for easier visual reference.

Fall 2017

Control Station is a software company located in Manchester, CT that produces solutions for monitoring plants. Plant ESP is their flagship software that operates in the background of the production, eliminating the need for routine manual checks, thus saving time and increasing efficiency for manufacturing plant managers and engineers. A six member ATION team was tasked with developing a way to convey the benefit of the complicated product to the target market.

The creation of an animated infographic and PSA style video that drew on a human element and integrated humor was perceived as an effective approach for the Control Station Team. The team coordinated a video shoot at UConn’s CoGen plant with an actor and shot the scenes for the video. Motion graphics, a voiceover, and cinematic edits were constructed as the team’s video deliverable. In addition, the team produced an animated logo for Plant ESP website and social platforms, along with a behind the scenes video.

Client Noah Vertefeuille gave the following testimonial:

“As an ATION alum, I knew when presenting this project that it would be a challenge. I also knew that if anyone could rise to the occasion, it would be ATION. I would highly recommend an ATION team to anyone in the future!”

Project Team

Nicholas Donati
Nick lent his abilities with Motion Graphics and videography to the final deliverable, responsible for adding 2D effects to the video. He also provided film equipment and transportation.

Alicia Fitzmaurice
Alicia served as a Project Coordinator and helped the team communicate their objectives to the client and Professor Congdon.

Anna Jannott
Anna was instrumental in making the storyboards for the ideation stage of the project and kept the team on script during their CoGen plant shoot.

Christopher Nista
Chris was important on the shooting day in order to get behind-the-scenes footage for the case study. Chris also used his understanding of design principles to help with weekly assignments and completed 2D graphics for the final deliverable.

Max Nonken
Max assisted in script writing and lent his abilities with videography and editing for the final deliverable.

Ben Schultz
As Project Coordinator, Ben helped the team define their roles, schedule shoots, and foster production. He also met with the staff at the plant, took pictures before the shoot, and obtained DMD-brand clothes as a gesture of appreciation to facilities manager Tim Grady.

Fall 2017

The Peter J. Werth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute aims to promote student entrepreneurship by providing access to resources, fostering startups, offering courses, and raising awareness of opportunities to explore their ideas. It allows students to network with professional entrepreneurs, funds student projects through awarded grants, and create student maker spaces to promote campus innovation. A five member ATION team was tasked to create digital content – namely an animation or video – that highlighted the values of the Institute and its members to create awareness for their programs.

At the start, the team was met with a few challenges. The largest of all was the ‘to be’ announced rebranding of what was once called the UConn Entrepreneurship & Innovation Consortium. This would, therefore, cause a re-edit of the project. However, even with a postponed announcement, the team was able to take the project at face value to meet the overall goals of the assignment.

Initially, the team came up with three concepts. First, a traditional, live-action interview with members of the Institute. Second, a character based animation where a character would assimilate into life as one of the member programs. And thirdly, an infographic animation that used statistics and graphical elements in an explainer style video. After meeting with the client, Kathy Rocha, the third option was selected due to its versatility with future changes within the Institute.

The team, consisting of Joey Spagnuolo, Rachel Wright, Katie Sawosik, Dan Araujo, and Joel Torres, honed in their strengths to produce quality content. Joey took the lead as co-project manager and scriptwriter; Dan was lead animator, video editor, and asset creator; Rachel was also a co-project manager, assistant animator and asset creator, and both Joel and Katie were co-asset creators and assistant animators.

A professional, yet eye-catching color palette of blues and yellow was crafted for the delivered animated video, combined with clean, flat vector 2D graphics. This was paired with a voiceover from one of UConn’s drama students and an inspiring background soundtrack.The team also surprised the client with a printable infographic based on the information in the video that could be distributed to both members and clients.

Ultimately, the exciting project came with a few challenges that were overcome through working together. The team successfully accomplished the initial goal: to create a video that explains the Institute and its benefits at a glance and were happy to utilize their digital media skills in a real-world application.

Project Team
Dan Araujo
Joel Torres
Joey Spagnuolo
Katie Sawosik
Rachel Wright

The UConn Entrepreneurship and Innovation Consortium is an interdepartmental initiative between the Undergraduate Programs, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice President for Research. It is their goal to deliver entrepreneurial training and venture development services to the greater community at the University of Connecticut. More specifically, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Consortium is an umbrella organization at the University of Connecticut focused on creating and improving the entrepreneurship environment at the university. Its focus is to make the University a hub for entrepreneurship. They ultimately hope to make UConn synonymous with Entrepreneurship, and vice-versa.

In addition, the HackUConn 24 hour hackathon event was entering its second year, and had gained a sponsor for the event. This greater investment in the event demanded a focus on growing it from it’s initial size to something greater. To expand the event, as well as reach a larger audience, the tasks at hand were to create promotional content, record and document the event, and use this documentation from the event to create more promotional content in the future. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Society was another source of input on event details for the hackathon.