H O T T A L E N T
The Newsletter of Aquent's Available Talent
M A R C H | 1 7 | 2 0 0 6
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Hot Talent
Featured Talent This Week
That Bit at the End - C.I.YAY!
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HOT TALENT
Those crazy leprechauns snuck in last night and colored this week's Hot Talent Newsletter green.
It IS green on your monitor, right?
They also left behind tiny marshmallows in a variety of shapes and colors.
We find them to be magically delicious.
Which leads us to this week's Hot Talent. Although it's green, you'll find it virtually bereft of banshees, blarney, shamrocks, and thick bread-like stout beer.
You'll have to see a bartender about those.
See us for great profiles, samples, and resumes.
Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day!
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FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK
Nicholas A. - Sr. Designer | Writer
Dawn H. - Web & Graphic Designer
Mark F. - Design | Production
Adriana Y. - Graphic Design & Production
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Nicholas A.
Sr. Web and Print Designer / Writer
A Los Angeles-based creative with 6+ years of freelance experience in Boston, San Francisco and L.A., Nicholas holds both an M.A. in Visual Media Arts (from Emerson) and a B.S.J. in Journalism.
His impressive portfolio encompasses a wide spectrum of disciplines, projects and clients, ranging from Internet start-ups to broadcast clients. Senior Designer for 4 years at Warner Bros. TV Network, he led all special projects, promotions, and sweepstakes, including creating dynamic Flash animations and on-line viral marketing. Most recently producing and designing with nonprofit heavyweight American Public Media, he's been assisting with their Marketplace and Weekend America sites designing Web pages, producing podcasts, and hand-coding CSS and HTML. His extensive client roster includes designing and/or writing for Red Envelope, Wishclick, Digitas, and LAist.com.
Be sure to check out his on-line Aquent profile!
Desired Work: Temporary and Permanent
Skills: Macromedia Flash, HTML, Shockwave, GIF Builder, Adobe After Effects, Adobe ImageReady, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, BBEdit, UNIX, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Windows, Macromedia FreeHand, Adobe Premiere, FileMaker, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe PageMill, Apache
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Dawn H.
Web & Graphic Designer
A Web Site Designer at Warner Bros. Online for over 7 years, Dawn was the mastermind behind the redesign of their Looneytunes.com site. Running hundreds of pages and chock full of games, screensavers, and (of course) cartoons, the enormous site can also be viewed in 8 different languages.
Que wow!
At Warner Bros. she was responsible for creating pages and elements on the main WB site, Flash-based movie sites, e-cards, newsletters, ads, sweepstakes and much more in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
Designing primarily in Flash, Dawn has basic ActionScript knowledge, a clean, bright design style, and the perfect attitude for any for any creative department!
See her on-line Aquent profile!
Desired Work: Freelance & Permanent
Skills: Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, HTML, Advertising/Account Management, Real Video, Adobe ImageReady, Macromedia Dreamweaver
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Mark F.
Design | Production
A Designer & Production Artist with 20 years of experience, Mark's a hired gun you'll want to hire again and again!
Most recently working on projects for Nestle's Specialty Food Division, he's done everything from creating packaging to running a creative team of six. At AON Services Group he led his group to increase brand awareness and sales by 10% even during a time of recession. While at Bear Advertising he contributed to a 30% increase in new business by leading agency pitches and led the packaging redesign of eleven consumer electronics products, resulting in 40% increased sales.
And he has 100% terrific hands-on skills in InDesign, Photoshop, and Quark.
If you like these numbers, give ours a call!
See his on-line Aquent profile!
Desired Work: Freelance
Skills: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Excel, Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Streamline, Now Up-To-Date, Adobe Acrobat, Now Contact, Lotus Notes, Management, Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Office, Flatbed Scanning, Advertising/Account Management, Macromedia Flash, Outlook Express, Macromedia Dreamweaver,
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Adriana Y.
Graphic Design & Production
Whether you need to produce direct mail, catalogs, video documentaries, or Web pages, Adriana is the answer to your creative prayers!
A wonderful personality with the skills to match, Adriana has been working with us since 1999 helping companies meet their demanding design and production timelines with her awesome creative talent and hands-on skills. Creating company identity and branding, retouching fashion and celebrity photos, concepting magazine ads, training on design software, you name it and she's done it for the likes of the Milken Family Foundation, California Institute of the Arts, Thomson/Gale, Kaiser Permanente, Conde Nast, Hallmark Channel, Delta Creative, and many more.
Armed with a Master of Fine Arts, she's the creative Magna Cum Laude who makes the perfect addition to any team!
See her on-line Aquent profile!
Desired Work: Freelance
Skills: QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Windows, Adobe Acrobat, Imagesetting, Output to Film, Flatbed Scanning
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THAT BIT AT THE END
"C.I.YAY!"
As a child it took me quite long time to figure out my father was working for the CIA.
But after so many 3am "hunting" trips, long waits in the car while he dropped brown packages into garbage cans, and the uncanny feeling that we were always being followed, I finally conceded that it must be true. I was about 6 at the time.
While other children got sheriff stars to wear on their t-shirts, my sister and I had to make due with Junior Hit Man badges, empty bullet casings, and counterfeit passports to play with. (My sister was always the Russian Counterspy.)
Our home life was never what you'd call great. Our mom was wonderful but Dad was always caught up in his work. During family dinners (when Dad wasn't off in Libya or Pakistan) he'd ask us what we did that day. Then we'd have to avoid giving him information at all costs. Around dessert, he'd usually have it out of all of us, even our mother, who was a pretty tough nut to crack.
We were really jealous when we found out other kids got to watch TV while they ate their dinners.
Unsurprisingly, any attempt to hide bad grades, stealing, or smoking was a colossal waste of time, as Dad had intelligence everywhere.
I was actually afraid to say anything in confession for over 12 years.
And though loving, Dad always erred on the side of caution. For example, we were always subjected to "pat downs" before we could give him a hug and kiss goodnight. If you'd sneak around a couch and try to surprise him, he'd always have the gun out and cocked before you could say, "Boo!" Which was kind of a bummer for an 8-year old. Whenever we'd go to a restaurant, Dad would insist on taking the chair facing the entrance, even if my sister and I wanted it. (Many times he's make the waiter/waitress cry by pressuring them into delivering the "secret specials".)
All this might have been easier to take if we could have at least impressed our friends by telling them our father was a CIA Agent, but we couldn't say anything. In fact Dad kept reminding us that he'd have to kill us if we did.
The only time of the year we could talk openly about what our father did was during the summer barbecues with other CIA dads and their families. Unfortunately, they were nothing like other people's barbecues with friends. The dads would always do things like ask you if you wanted a hot dog, then give you a hamburger, just to keep you on your toes. I don't even think they had any hot dogs. That's the kind of people they were. After they gave you the hamburger all the Agents would look at each other and laugh.
More humiliating were the camping trips with the Agent families. The incessant midnight interrogations kept everyone awake. If they weren't hauling you out of the tent, you'd wake up when they were carrying someone else out. And the questioning took hours!
"What did you eat for breakfast?"
"Why did you throw that fish back?"
"Who's your favorite CIA operative?"
They loved to play us kids against each other. One trip I told them that Jimmy left the toilet seat up just because I wanted to get back to my tent and go to sleep. The poor kid had to spend the rest of the trip in solitary. Jimmy and I were never close after that. In fact, all the kids eventually learned never to trust each other.
During the trip none of the CIA dads would take us out fishing, canoeing, or swimming. We'd go with our mothers while they talked in hushed tones about the Kennedy assassination or the Bay of Pigs and drank gallons of coffee.
At the end of every night they'd hold a dance contest and the loser would have to clean up the site at the end of the night.
I was never happier than when summer was over and I could finally go back to school and get some peace and quiet.
In fact, it's quite possibly the main reason I always went to summer school. And went to college on the opposite coast.
And could explain why I'm working on my 5th Master's Degree (this time in Communicative Disorders).
And still live in a dormitory.
With lots of aluminum foil on the windows.
You can never be too careful.
That's what Dad says, anyway.
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Tim Donnelly
Propagandist | Blogger | Stuff Coordinator
Aquent
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